Please Call Me by My True Names a Poem by Thich Nhat Hanh

Please Call Me by My True Names
Don't say that I will depart tomorrow—
Even today I am still arriving
Look deeply: every second I am arriving
To be a bud on a Spring branch
To be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings
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
To fear and to hope
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
Of all that is alive
I am a mayfly metamorphosing
On the surface of the river
And I am the bird
That swoops down to swallow the mayfly
I am a frog swimming happily
In the clear water of a pond
And I am the grass-snake
That silently 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 also 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 all over the Earth
My pain is like a river of tears
So vast it fills the four oceans
Please call me by my true names
So I can hear all my cries and laughter 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 the door of my heart
Could be left open
The door of compassion