Directions: You are invited to breathe with the lines of the poem.
Every breath is your praise.
Nishmat kol hay tevareh.
The infant breath, quick and shallow,
from lungs so new to the task.
The tree breath, a fluttering susurration
of stomata on leaves, opening and closing.
Every breath is your praise.
Nishmat kol hay tevareh.
Max’s last breath, so quiet
I did not see which it was,
as I held her head
and stroked her face,
long after it was taken.
Every breath is your praise.
Nishmat kol hay tevareh.
Dolphin breath, spider breath, jellyfish breath,
laughing breaths, sobbing breaths.
The oceans, churning oxygen through their deeps,
we, filling our lungs with the molecules
of generations before us
and those long after we are gone.
This green, blue, moving, breathing earth.
Every breath is your praise.
Nishmat kol hay tevareh.
