Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not

Buddhist, sufi, or zen.

Not any religionor cultural system.

I am not from the Eastor the West, not out of the ocean or upfrom the ground, not natural or ethereal, notcomposed of elements at all.

I do not exist,am not an entity in this world or in the next,did not descend from Adam and Eve or anyorigin story.

My place is placeless, a traceof the traceless.

Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the twoworlds as one and that one call to and know,first, last, outer, inner, only thatbreath breathing human being.

An Excerpt from the translations of Coleman Barks