My Life Closed Twice

My Life Closed Twice was written in January 2000 during John’s residence at Seaside, FL, as a fellow in the Seaside Institute’s Escape to Create program.

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
–text by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)