I am Eternity

This poem came from a meditation on identity; one of those moments where I sat with myself and felt everything I thought I was fall away. It began with a simple image: a sandcastle. That image felt almost childlike, but as I wrote, it became a portal into something much bigger.

For much of my life, I’ve wrestled with the question of who I am. I’ve been the “castle,” building layers of identity and structure, trying to create safety and meaning. I’ve also felt like the “sand,” scattered and formless, pulled in a thousand directions by other people’s expectations and the winds of change. This poem was my attempt to peel back those illusions, one by one, and see what remains when all the shifting parts are gone.

The lesson here is that we are not what we build, nor the tools we use to build it. We are not our thoughts, our creations, or even the mind that dreams them. We are the presence behind it all, the witness. Writing this poem felt like glimpsing that still, eternal self; the “mirror deep behind the eyes” that simply reflects. That place of quiet watching felt like home, like truth, and it was both humbling and freeing to recognize that I don’t have to hold onto any one identity to exist.

The distortion this poem helped dissolve was my subtle belief that I needed to “find” myself, as if who I truly am were hidden somewhere outside me. This piece reminded me that I am not a puzzle to solve but the awareness in which all puzzles appear. I am the eternal chain of observation, the one who remains even as everything else changes.

“I am Eternity” still feels like a meditation when I read it. It carries the energy of those moments where I step back from the swirl of life and remember I am not just the dreamer or the dream, but the space in which both arise. It’s a poem I return to when I feel lost, because it reminds me that no matter what I build or lose, what I truly am is untouchable, vast, quiet, and free.