It’s so beautiful
       life
the power of it
       the frailty of it
the five-petalled primrose 
       quality of it
the balance of it
       how we are always
only a breath away
       from love or death

how so much and yet
       so little is held
in our hands –
       we have words
to breach the silence
       and silence to sustain
our words and images
       all that is expressed
out of us calmly and urgently
       all that speaks
to the heart
       and to the soul

So beautiful
       life
a hand pressed
       to lips or the sound
of a child’s laughter
       her thin hair
caught in the wind
       blowing across her face
her defiant smile
       her eventual kiss

John Lyons