to know itself

I am the sheen of the sword
I am the blood it delivers.
 
I am the snow
I am the mountain
I am the salt
I am the ocean
I am the planet
I am its shadow
I am the star
I am the splendor.
 
I am the essence
I am the illusion
I am the duality
I am the oneness
I am the ambiguity
I am the liberation
I am a million possibilities.
 
I am the muffled cry
of childbirth
the universe
comes into being
and the dread
of the ever after.

(The title is from a quote by Carl Sagan:
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.)