The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.
The mud under your fingernails is ancient.
It is my kith and kin.
Your tears flow from the sea.
They rain down into rivers to whence they came.
The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.
Our fathers rest in the mire that feeds our roots.
The sun bakes the odor of decay into our flesh.
The stench of fertility rises in shimmering waves.
It blends with the scent of new-mown hay.
The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.
Our mothers sway in the kelp beneath the sea.
They cradle the bones of sailors lost.
We go to join them in the earth and sea.
We rise up into the sunlight and soar on the wind.
The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.
The flocks of blackbirds flow like schools of mackerel.
The herring schools fly through the water.
The bison billow and flow over the land like thunder-clouds.
The crows observe and remember where you dropped their sustenance.
The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.
We spring from from these elements, but we do not return to them.
How can we return when we never left?
The lovingkindness we practice will live on in the lives we touch.
The joy we express will make music in our children.
The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.
If generosity of spirit, humility, mercy and joy live in us
our children will yearn to forge prosperity and peace for all people.
We are the soil, we are the water, we are the air. The sun lives in us
The justice we sow is our children's harvest of peace.
The dust and the water and the light and the air live forever.