*****

Recorded Reading (3:31):https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/18m2pgwbuh54qd0qh99rb/The-Value-of-a-Smile.mp3?rlkey=n16ss429ybf4y0scamxywlyek&st=any2prvm&dl=0

*****

The Value of a Smile

They say that when at last we die
We upward from our bodies rise ~
Others put us back may try
Though that intention we despise

“Leave off,” we feel like telling them,
“I’m right up here, I’m really fine!
Revive me not, nor me condemn
To bring that body back online!

“My pain is gone, and I can fly!
I can hear every single sound,
From my new purchase here on high,
Oh, it must be for miles around!”

They say we go to visit those
Beloved have become to us
Still caught in dim existence’ throes,
Given each a chance to bless

That from our new perspective
All is understandable,
The way each chosen has to live
Appropriate and lovable

They say we learn another thing
Before we go toward the Light
In which welcoming angels bring
Us into true divine delight

We get to see each deed we’ve done
From birth to death, strung in a line —
Spectacular phenomenon
The essence of those deeds define:

When we created happiness,
Alleviated sorrow’s blight,
Another with compassion bless,
We created a bead of light

Then, as nuclear fission in,
When it reach its receiver to
That little bead of light begin
To split itself in two

Thenceforth, according to its share
Of loving energy,
Continues to whomever there
Comes in its path to be

Some deeds create a little pool
Around themselves of light divine,
Some are more significant
And some are perfectly sublime

Enormous, lovely coruscating
Rings of iridescent hue
The virtues of our lives relating
By their beneficent view

We are surprised by the amount
Of use which we have lately been
The which those rings of light recount,
Then, slowly, we begin

To understand the message
Which this vision has to tell —
Perhaps, whilst we yet grow and age,
‘Twere good to learn it well

For it is not the actions we
Imagine brought the most delight
To suffering humanity
Which make the very brightest light

Not the awarded book, not the
Organization for relief,
Construction of a sacristy
Or mission to propound belief

It is a lovely splash of light
Makes each of these activities,
But ~ now that we can see it right ~
Even more than these

The greatest gift that we can give
Another living spirit while
It mortal realms we also live
Is one warm, gentle, simple smile

*****

The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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