03/19/2026
The Art of Poetry Series
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The Morning Agreement
I wake before the world finishes deciding what it is today,
before the headlines stretch their shadows across the sky,
before fear finds its shoes.
There is a quiet contract in the air,
unspoken, but certain:
today I will meet hearts that are heavy,
eyes that forgot how to soften,
voices sharpened by storms they never asked for.
And I say… okay.
Because the world is turning again,
restless, rearranging,
like a gallery where every painting refuses to stay still.
Everything changes.
Everything leaves.
Everything arrives disguised as something else.
Life,
brief as a breath on glass.
So I gather what is mine to carry:
my words,
my actions,
this small glowing center in my chest
that still remembers how to love.
The rest?
I release like sand through open fingers.
Let them come,
the adversaries,
the anxious,
the ones trembling behind sharp edges.
I will meet them
not with armor,
but with light.
Not naive,
awake.
Because I know something they may have forgotten:
a sentence can heal or fracture a soul,
a glance can open a window or close a door forever.
So I choose gentle.
I choose patient.
I choose to speak like each word is a seed
that might outlive me.
And if the day shakes,
if disappointment knocks like an uninvited guest,
I will still set a place at the table.
“Sit,” I’ll say.
“You, too, are part of my becoming.”
Every failure,
a chisel.
Every fear,
a doorway wearing a mask.
Nothing wasted.
Nothing outside the design.
Because in the center of my being
there is only this knowing:
There is a reason.
There is a rhythm.
There is Hashem,
woven through it all
like breath through song.
So I rise, grateful.
Wildly, humbly, fully alive.
If this is my last morning,
then let it be said,
I sang anyway.
I danced anyway.
I loved loudly,
and forgave quickly,
and stood in the light
even when the world flickered.
And to whoever needs it today,
take this with you:
🪬Do not be afraid.
🪬Hold what you can shape.
🪬Release what you cannot.
🪬Stay luminous.
YOU matter more than you know.
And somewhere,
in ways you may never see,
your love is already changing everything. 🦋
⸻
With love,
Stacy Bracha BenHayon