Nights when it’s warm
and no one is watching,
I walk to the edge
of the road and stare
at all the fireflies.
I squint and pretend
they’re hallucinations,
bright made-up waves
of the brain.
I call them,
field bling.
I call them,
fancy creepies.
It’s been a long time
since I’ve wanted to die,
it makes me feel
like taking off
my skin suit
and seeing how
my light flies all
on its own, neon
and bouncy like a
wannabe star.

-- Ada Limon

Don’t just stand there with your hair turning gray,
Soon enough the seas will sink your little island
So while there is still the illusion of time,
Set out for another shore.
No sense packing a bag.
You won’t be able to lift it into your boat.
Give away all your collections.
Take only new seeds and an old stick.
Send out some prayers on the wind before you sail.
Don’t be afraid.
Someone knows you’re coming.
An extra fish has been salted.

-- Mona Santacroce

On that fatal day when my casket rolls along

Do not think my heart is in this world.

Do not cry, do not cry with anguished moans,

For that is a pit a demon has dug, and only that is sad.

When you see my procession, don't cry, "Gone, gone!"

For me it is a time of meeting and reunion.

As you lower me into the grave, don't say, "So long."

The grave is a veil before the gathering of paradise.

When you see that lowering down, consider a rising.

What harm is there in the setting of a sun or moon?

What seems a setting to you is a dawning.

Though it may seem a prison,

This vault releases the soul.

What seed goes into the earth and does not grow?

Why are you doubting this human seed?

What bucket goes down and does not come up full?

Why should the Joseph of the spirit resent the well?

Close your mouth on this side and open it beyond,

For in the nowhere air will be your song.

-- Jelal ad-Din Rumi

One night when you were just a star,
someone hung every hope, every wish, every dream,
they ever had from your limbs,
so if you ever feel inferior,
ever start to doubt your beauty or brilliance just remember:
you have constellations lining the cathedral walls of your chest,
a moon for a heart
and the sunlight pouring through your skin,
you are a symphony of stardust
and you were born to shine.

-- Tyler Kent White

I shall live beyond death, and I shall sing in your ears

Even after the vast sea-wave carries me back

To the vast sea-depth.

I shall sit at your board though without a body,

And I shall go with you to your fields, a spirit invisible.

I shall come to you at your fireside, a guest unseen.

Death changes nothing but the masks that cover our faces.

The woodsman shall be still a woodsman,

The ploughman, a ploughman,

And he who sang his song to the wind shall sing it also to

              the moving spheres.

--Kahlil Gibran