Life is a Gift

The Wise Men will unlearn your name.
Above your head no star will flame.
One weary sound will be the same -
the hoarse roar of the gale.
The shadows fall from your tired eyes
as your loan bedside candle dies,
for here the calendar breeds nights
till stores of candles fail.

What prompts the melancholy key?
A long familiar melody.
It sounds again. So let it be.
Let it sound from this night.
Let it sound in my hour of death -
as gratefulness of eyes and lips
for that which sometimes makes us lift
our gaze to the far sky.

You glare in silence at the wall.
Your stocking gapes: no gifts at all.
It's clear you are now too old
to trust in good Saint Nick;
that it's too late for miracles.
But suddenly, lifting your eyes
to heaven's light, you realise:
your life is a sheer gift.

1 January 1965 by Joseph Brodsky

I love this poem. I am sure most of us have felt the way he describes.

The epiphany at the end of the poem is tough. He realises that life is a gift, not just despite the pain, misery, fear and loneliness - but because of it. The gift of 'sheer life' is distinct from the many joys of life - and it is a gift we can lose sight of when we are full up with things - when we are happy, busy and in company.

When we reach 'empty' - we may finally realise that there is something else - something that should be filled - sheer life itself.

God does not give us the right to exist - life is sheer gift.

What will we do with this knowledge?