We Breath—then drop the air—²
Life is a place of Passing Breath—³
We live most Life—whoever breathes most Air.⁴
I teem with Chasms of Air!⁵
Give me thy Breath—for
I am faint with common air!⁶
We breathe with unconditional Breath
The unconditioned Air.⁷
Call us Scripters of Breath—⁸
A Breathcrystal: your Unalterable Testimony.⁹
All beings merge into Breath alone,
And from breath Arise.¹⁰
¹ C.D. Wright, Poster, Women’s Prison
² Emily Dickinson, One Year Ago
³ Marian Paust, Report to Next of Kin
⁴ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Love
⁵ Laura Hershey, Canyon
⁶ Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter
⁷ Wendell Berry, How To Be a Poet
⁸ George Abraham, The Palestinian/Queer Specimen’s Index
⁹ Paul Celan tr. Pierre Joris, Eroded
¹⁰ Chandogya-Upanishad 1.11.5 tr. Max Müller