death is death
even though not all death is the same
as the space between one death
and the next
lies a heart
that has been broken
and mended
and then put back together
and then shattered again
and now that heart exists in
many spaces and with
many people and with
many memories and with
no sense of itself
a heart is a heart
even though not all hearts are the same
but
if you look close enough
or if you happen to be close enough
you’ll see just one heart
but
if you pull back you’ll see
what looked like one heart
is made up of many hearts
that have webs of more hearts
made up of other webs of hearts
many hearts is one heart
and one heart is many hearts
it may be
that a death of one
is like a death to all
and not a death at all
death is just a way of talking
about things that we have no words left for
death becomes life with a new name
This is beautiful, Nathan. I suppose death is quite literally the middle of transition, the central part of transformation. Thank you for sparking these thoughts. Love you, brother.
What the heck. Google sent me here to find out how to export my Kindle highlights and boom there’s this BEAUTIFUL poem by this rando blogger who turns out to be a Christian too.
God bless, Nathan.
Dear Nathan,
I can’t believe how your poem addresses the actual events and feelings in my life and the life of my family. During 2020 my family lost eight beloved members, seven to cancer and one to a heart problem that might have been Covid related.
This is an overwhelming experience to go through. It is very difficult to mourn eight people all at once.
Your poem creates segways between death and the meaning of life. It has a spiritual power that goes above words. Thank you so much.