The birth, life and death of stars
Mirrors the mysterious path of ours
Or more precisely, IS the same
As the only difference is in name
Post Script
The poem begins with a familiar comparison: the birth, life, and death of stars mirror our own. The third line then corrects the metaphor. Human life does not merely resemble the life of the stars. It belongs to the same unfolding reality.
The capitalized “IS” marks this turn. Most of the elements heavier than helium that compose our bodies were formed through stellar processes. The carbon in our cells, the calcium in our bones, the oxygen we breathe, and the iron carried in our blood belong to a history far older than any individual life. In this material sense, we are not merely beneath the stars. We are continuations of them.
The difference remains useful in name: conventionally, a person is not a star. Yet names can persuade us that the boundaries they describe are absolute. The title suggests another view. The stars, the earth, and the beings who look upward from it are inseparable expressions of one continuous becoming.
Image credit: Binary system of O stars (2010), NASA.
Primitive Joe 
