Editor’s note: This wonderful poem is a reflection emerging from a viewing of the Japanese film After Life, in which the recently deceased choose one memory to live in for eternity.
Blessing for a New Way for Hirokazu Kore-eda
After great joys, crucial feelings come:
The butterflies get in your stomach. Flit-Floom.
Your open heart wonders, “What’s this?
Some god must’ve turned up,”
and, “Did they arrive only yesterday?
Can they stay for cigarettes and lunch?”
Your feet—all fluid and noodlee—
go up&down...round&round...
on cloud-paved paths...over mountains,
seas...nothing.
You are no longer on your own.
You’ve found some company.
And,
they’d like it
if you’d
come along.
Welcome to the hour you are born.
May you remember it:
the hum of a new song,
the beginning of this story,
the letting go,
and moving on...
after Emily Dickinson
Garrett Mostowski is a pastor and writer in Detroit, Michigan