call me by my true names

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.  

thich nhat hanh