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Poetry

Being

by Lisa Roberts

Life and death, birth and demise,
those shared certainties
that embrace all in equal measure.
Beginning and ending,
the first notes of the symphony
or the fading echo of song,
reverberating as the baton lowers.
We celebrate the one and fear
the presumed finality of the other,
or at the very least, the loss
we know we’ll suffer. Nothing more
settled or sure than death
and birth. Our communal constant,
both for man and beast.
And what lies beyond, if the soul
is the form of the body,
remains to be encountered.

Lisa Roberts lives in California. A Thomist by nature, her poetry has been published in Rattle, Saint Austin Review, Trivium Magazine, and elsewhere. She was a finalist in the 2024 Fernando Reilo World Mystical Poetry Prize competition.