Poem by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Night in Kalapa
This time it happened—
Caught in a thunderstorm,
Spun and twirled,
Dizzy,
Happy,
I was caught off guard.
This whirlwind took my heart.

I needed everything to fall apart
Like feathers from a pillow
Tossed high into the sky.
Everything comes falling down,
Gliding on a breeze caught in its own time—
Energy that can't be measured.

Comet shoots across my existence.
This wonderful force does not know where it will go.
I need things to fall apart,
I want things to fall apart.
All through time, all through the day
I have held on and held on tight.
Now everything falls apart.

The sun and the moon know how to fall apart.
Spring knows how to be summer
Autumn leaves know how to fall down.
Can I be like the seasons
And know that falling apart
Is the movement of time,
The movement of life?

I have not given up,
I have simply woken up.
This wild burst of energy
Wants to twirl and spin,
It wants mayhem.

I am mayhem—
Claustrophobia self-liberated,
Hesitation with a friend called fathomlessness.
I am that smile that shines across the sky.
If you look up, you will see me
And fall apart.

Sakyong Mipham
3 March 2001
Halifax, Nova Scotia