I Will Not Die an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova

I Will Not Die an Unlived Life
by Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

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This is one of the “vow” poems to me, that holds a determination to be undiminished, to open to life, to continue to risk and to take a generational perspective in it. I love the choicefulness in it — “I choose to inhabit my days” — and I’ve used the last lines to speak to what we all receive, and what we can pass on. Dawna Markova wrote this declaration in the 1990s after surviving a serious illness that prompted her to articulate what she actually wanted from her remaining life. The piece has had wide circulation in coaching, leadership, and contemplative-activist work since the title book appeared in 2000.