Beginning & Beginning

By D. S. Martin

---

After John Donne's 'Death's Duel'

Can we account for our
becoming   our souls breathed  
into tiny bodies   by divine breath?

Did God weave soul   into the fabric
of your embryo   to protect it
from being broken?

Each response from your tongue
when spoken   has its beginning
on your exhaled breath

Every breath   rising from our lungs
is a gift   we lift  
along with every song we're singing

Though soul is far more  
than the breath we breathe  
& spirit far more than the soul

we receive all three   thankfully  
each an intricate part
of the whole

Yet   when Christ faced death
& released   unseen   all three 
into the Father's hands

(spirit   soul   & final breath)
he knew that's where
they'd always been

---

D.S. Martin is Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College, and Series Editor for the Poiema Poetry Series from Cascade Books. He has written five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021), Ampersand (2018) and Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C. S. Lewis (2013). He and his wife live in Brampton, Ontario; they have two adult sons.