Susan message for Peace:
The poem
Please call me by
my true names
at
Home2b.nl
PLEASE CALL ME BY MY TRUE NAMES
by
Thich Nhat Hanh
Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
Because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
To be a bud on a spring branch,
To be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
Learning to sing in my new nest,
To be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
To be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
In order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
Death of all that are alive.
I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the
river,
And I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in
time
To eat the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
And I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in
silence,
Feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
My legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to
Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small
boat,
Who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by
a sea
Pirate,
And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of
seeing and
Loving,
I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power
in my
Hands,
And I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to
my
People,
Dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom
in all
Walks of life,
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it fills the
four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
So I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
So I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
So I can wake up,
And so the door of my heart can be left open,
The door of
compassion.
May this poem inspire
peace in the world.
Susan thanks Mr.Thich Nhat Hanh
for kindly giving permission
to place this poem
on this webpage.
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Updated July 27, 2011
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