Christopher Hansard:[Mortality]

What delicate strains of sadness hang in the clouds

like threads of silk plucked on the notes of a Lute

what single tears that fall holding an entire world?

a friend of friend had a heart attack

mortality came and slapped him on the back

mortality

came

and in the melody

of rainfall upon wind upon the sea upon the breeze

there is a slow wave in everything

a quiet tusnami of becoming

where the colours, scents and dreams

of mortality fall and flitter

you know this

you have seen it

felt it and maybe tried to shut it out

call out to mortality

feel it in the rain

or the memory of your breath in the winter

when you were a child

are you brave enough to be so again?

mortality

is the thing that people fear the most

and they confuse it with death

and hitch them both to the same post

death is honest and does not pretend

mortality takes on any form

and delays the end

in order that the wise can catch a glimpse

and breathe in the timbres of mortality

and the colour of life, birth and breath

do not delay the mortal lesson in your daily life

celebrate the illusion and it will reveal to you

the sight of reality

everything falls away, mortality takes it

and moves it on

breath in. breath out

can you smell the rain in the air?

feel the clouds scudding the wind?

do you recall your footsteps from childhood to now?

the dance of forgetfulness

is found in the fear of living

become a lover of mortality

and then life shows you the cycles of eternity

breath in, breathe out

listen, taste, touch

know