Spirit Questions (a Rubáiyát)

I wrote this a few years ago for the d’Verse Poets Pub. I thought it would be good to reflect on as we exit 2020 and enter 2021. We have lost a multitude of people this year to Covid-19. Death has a way of bringing things into focus. It brings us face to face with our own mortality. The thoughts in this poem reflect on spirit within each of us.

Where dwells the spirit before life begins         

Waiting to entwine with genes at man’s whims

Does it float in space riding red stardust

Or in ocean waves where the raindrops swim

*

Where dwells the spirit when I took my first

Breath of life // of heart and lungs merged thirst    

Spirit seems at home in this flesh and bone

Fragile body // heart pumping till it bursts

*

Where does my spirit dwell when life is done   

As eyes close in death and the race is run

Breath leaves the body and the spirit rises

Rejoining spirit with Spirit // lives on

******

Photo: Dwight L. Roth