Beloved, this day and every day
I am with you.
You are my flesh; I your longing;
you my muscle, I your nerve.
Each day I leave my homeland
to marry you.
I abandon the palace of clouds
to blossom into this world.
I touch you in the feel of smooth stone,
sound of the sea.
I wrap arms around you
in those you love, and have.
In life I am your shadow;
in death I am that shadow.
I am both sides
of the curtain of absence.
The word without throat or lips
rising in the deepest unknowing,
the unhearable voice in your night agonies,
it is I.
I am your breathing, you are my song,
you my trembling, I your strength.
We are what only can be we,
this courage, this beauty.
We are this world’s dawn,
the light that is we.
Go forth into this day,
this long unfolding of us,
and may it be for me
according to your way.
—December 17, 2014