When Air Becomes Breath
By S M Chen, posted 6-8-2016 by D Kovacs
“You that seek what life is in death, Now find it air that once was breath…’
- Baron Brooke Fulke Greville (1554-1628), “Caelica 83”
Dust of earth,
molded by
Hands that studded
universe with orbs,
destined to return
to unforgiven
and unforgiving
primal powder,
—–
Cannot fathom
depths of love
requisite to breathe
life into that
which would one day
pierce those Hands
and lay the Breather
to dust.
—–
The prince of darkness
and dust dethroned,
the Breather
revitalized,
now the promise
of return
to give this dust
endless breath.
Art Credit: Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo da Buonarroti, 1511-12. In public domain.
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S M Chen writes from California.
I personally enjoyed this poem. As my father was recently in failing health I read “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi. I lost my 94-year-old father, Pastor Melvin Tompkins, with his last breath on April 18. The creator story gives assurance of the air becoming breath again on the mighty return of the Breather.