26/07/2026
A poem titled, “Bird Wings” by Rumi.
This poem found me when I was in a deep period of grief, and I’ve carried it in my back pocket ever since.
It reminds us of the pattern of transformation and healing, how every period of contracting into the mysterious depths of our own suffering is followed by an expansion of our spirit.
When we cling to either the pain or joy for too long, refusing to give yield to the natural cycle of transformation, we become paralyzed.
When we allow this natural evolution of our spirit to move through the unwinding of our inner pain and liberation - we fly. Maybe not in body, but definitely in soul and spirit.
The poem is a reminder for those who are grieving that joy is yet to come again. That grief, like all things, is temporary.
It is dually a reminder for those who are experiencing joy to also feel the gratitude of its presence. To take caution not to runaway with it, for our deepest meaning doesn’t live in a single emotion, but lives in the entirety of our human experience. That is where we find our greatest aliveness.
The full poem is below.
Bird Wings
The grief for what you carry lifts a mirror
up to where you are bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open,
you would be paralysed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings.