Poem "as sparks from a dying fire/ reach out to meet the darkness"

 

https://twitter.com/danalevinpoet/status/1293541438643408898?s=20

 

(Poem poems of the early Buddhist nuns from The First Free Women  poems of the early Buddhist nuns)

Uttama ~ Great Woman

For years I couldn’t sleep.

Most nights I’d throw off the covers
and take long runs through the dark.

Nothing helped.

My sisters.

When sleepless nights come
to tear you into little pieces,

rise to meet the day
as a tree rises to meet the axe—
as a scalp bows to meet the blade—
as sparks from a dying fire
reach out to meet the darkness—
as all of our bones
someday fall softly down
to meet earth.

When you stand,
send your roots down between the stones.

When you walk,
walk like a skeleton walking to its grave.

When you lie down,
lie down like a blown-out candle
being put back in a drawer.

When you sit,
sit very
very
still.

My sisters, sit like you are dead already.

How could this world possibly
give you what you’re looking for
when it’s so busy
falling apart—
just
like
you?

Look closely.
Don’t move until you see it.

 (from https://www.shambhala.com/featured-poems-from-first-free-women/)