We live most Life—
Whoever breathes most Air.²
After an endless time gasping for air,
The first Breath: Raw, Dragging, Searingly Painful—
That is Freedom: breath, what you breathe.³
Give me thy breath—for I am
Faint with common air!⁴
I am learning to Breathe without asking
For breath to carry me anywhere but Here.⁵
A Breathcrystal: your Unalterable Testimony.⁶
We breathe with unconditional breath
The unconditioned Air.⁷
In the Vast Immensity—
A breath feels more at home.⁸
When I breathe In, the universe breathes Out—
When I breathe Out, the universe breathes In.⁹
All beings Merge into breath alone,
And from breath Arise.¹⁰
¹ C.D. Wright, Poster, Women’s Prison
² Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Love
³ Ursula K. Le Guin, Paradise Lost
⁴ Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter
⁵ Margaret Gibson, Affirmations
⁶ Paul Celan tr. Pierre Joris, Eroded
⁷ Wendell Berry, How To Be a Poet
⁸ Naomi Shihab Nye, Stars over Big Bend
⁹ Sasaki Roshi, quoted in Original Love
¹⁰ Chandogya-Upanishad 1.11.5 tr. Max Müller