This Poem Should be a Circle by Mark Nepo

This Poem Should be a Circle
by Mark Nepo

I wish you the ability to breathe
after pain, to begin again, though
nothing else seems possible.
 
I wish you resilience: to part like
the ocean and accept like the sky,
to be held like a root.
 
I wish you survival: to take in life
like a trapped miner finding an
airhole and praising it as God.
 
I wish you courage: to ask of
everything you meet, “What
bridge are we?"
 
I wish you chances to listen: ;
to all that holds us up.
 
I wish you the kindness that you
are coming to brighten your face
like orange leaves scattered
at the end of fall.
 
I wish you endless journey that
seldom appears as we imagine.
 
I wish you curiosity: to make a
boat of wonder and an oar
of gratitude.
 

These reflections are excerpts from several books, including a new book of poems, Surviving Has Made Me Crazy, CavanKerry Press, and a new book of spiritual non-fiction, Facing the Lion, Being the Lion: Inner Courage and Where It Lives, Red Wheel/Conari Press. For more info, please visit  www.MarkNepo.com .
 
Mark Nepo
Program Officer
Fetzer Institute