All That Lives

a poem by William P. Meyers

"All that lives must die
Passing through nature to eternity." *
Consicouness grows in confusion
Mother's eyes and taste of milk
Babbling tongues of fathers and friends
Sweet gaps of sleep
And rude or gentle awakenings.

Do not mourn then your own death.
For family, mourn three days,
Then get on with life.
Life is a gift of Nature.
Scorn the Buddha teaching life is suffering
Scorn the Buddha teaching life is illusion
Scorn the Messiah teaching life is about
the afterlife
Scorn the atheist who teaches life is meaningless.
You are not a robot.

Life is a gift.
Taste it.
Taste the sugar, and the cinnamon,
Taste the hops and the herbs,
Taste the breads and the meats,
Taste the peach and the apple,
Taste the clam and the dove.

Taste it all, taste it mixed and spiced,
Tast all the the Cook offers.
Save the henbane and opium and nightshade
For the end, when limbs grow weary
Eyes dim, and fog rises up
Over the swamp of memory.

Consciousness disappears in confusion
Leaving no waste.
The present trots onward
The past goes back forever.

*Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2, Lines 72-73
Copyright 2015 by William P. Meyers, all rights reserved