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Poetry by Michael YapThe Inner World Collection
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A handwoven veil between cool mineral shadow and a narrow field of warm light, with no deity, icon or sacred symbol.

What Grief Leaves Behind · curated edition

Shortness of Life: Eternal Echoes of the Wave

A quiet reading

About 2 minutes · 8 stanzas

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Life is a wave, born from depths we cannot see, rising for an instant before folding back into the sea.

It is fleeting, though not always gracefully. The wave cannot pause, and still we keep trying to hold a little water in our hands.

So hold close the ones you love when closeness is welcome. Notice the way their eyes catch light, the sound of a familiar laugh, the ordinary warmth of sharing a room.

Life is short. This truth can be blessing, burden, or both. It sharpens some joys and makes some losses harder to name.

Do not wait forever to speak, but do not turn love into panic. There may be more chances. There may be fewer than we imagine. All we truly hold is the chance before us now.

The people we love are not ours to keep. They move beside us, shaping the shoreline, then sometimes travel where we cannot follow.

What remains is not eternal because we say it is. It remains in smaller ways: a phrase we borrow, a kindness repeated, a memory returning with the salt air.

This is the beauty of the wave. It rises, touches shore, and changes what it meets, even after the water has drawn back.

Take a moment before choosing what comes next.

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“Life is a wave,
born from depths we cannot see,
rising for an instant
before folding back into the sea.”
Shortness of Life: Eternal Echoes of the WavePoetry by Michael Yap
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Reading and edition context

This curated edition is shared as personal artistic expression, not medical, financial or relationship advice. Sacred names and traditions are approached with respectful poetic or devotional context.

Narration is off in this release.