Everything is beautiful and I am so sad
Everything is beautiful
and I am so sad.
This is how the heart makes
a duet of wonder and grief.
The light spraying
through the lace of the fern
is as delicate
as the fibers of memory
forming their web
around the knot in my throat.
The breeze
makes the birds move
from branch to branch
as this ache makes me look
for those I’ve lost
in the next room,
in the next song,
in the laugh
of the next stranger.
In the very center,
under it all,
what we have
that no one can take away
and all that we’ve lost
face each other.
It is there that I’m adrift,
feeling punctured
by a holiness
that exists inside everything.
I am so sad
and everything is beautiful.
by Mark Nepo