Ancient Forest Zen, Bamboo in the Wind, Buddhism, death and dying, hospice, poetry, Stephen Damon, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Zen
For Jean
by Stephen Damon
This poem is for a Zen Hospice resident with whom I spent a few hours, a couple of days before she died. Our day together was spent mainly in silence, but we did exchange a few whispers. I will always remember the last time I saw her smile as she whispered, “thank you” for a flashlight I put on her bedside table. It was one of the most beautiful and haunting smiles I have ever seen. It will stay with me forever.
She is resting
More deeply than before
More deeply than I can know.
Her breathing is quiet
Barely a whisper
Or maybe its prayer
Lighter than air.
Her eyes open a glimmer
A spark within smoke
Then close with a smile.
Beneath a universe of stars
She floats effortlessly
Toward a far-off distance
Only she can see.
Space is dissolving
Without a center
Or circumference.
She is no more—
She is everything.
Bows,
Stephen
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