Learn to let things come, learn to let them go

Sink with your breath to take root with your feet-

Even the body you wear, you borrow

Your first step drops lightly into the flow,

All movement is one, advance or retreat–

Learn to let things come, learn to let them go

Rise up on the wings of the crane to know

Where it is that earth and heaven might meet- 

Even the body you wear, you borrow

In order to ascend, first reach down low;

Unspool a thread of time as you repeat-

Learn to let things come, learn to let them go

Clouds wave by with the promise of a drawn bow

A budding flower can’t be obsolete- 

See that the body you wear, you borrow

When the world burns, the mind shifts to and fro

Yet despair and hope have shapes incomplete- 

Learn to let things come, learn to let them go;

Even the body you wear, you borrow

Any wisdom in this villanelle was borrowed from Sifu Feng