The Heart I Do Not Deny

I learned the Code in halls of morning light, Before the stars were filled with falling fire. They told me peace begins where anger ends, But grief still knows the names of fallen friends. I will not turn my sorrow into steel, Or call a wound unworthy because I feel. The heart may shake, the hand may still be kind; I choose the truth that fear would make me blind. Not empty, not unbroken, Not cold enough to hide - I let the storm pass through me Without becoming night. Peace is not the silence of a heart denied, It is standing in the fire with the light alive. Knowledge through the shadow, calm within the cry, Harmony is choosing love without possession’s chain. When death comes near, I will not close my eyes - I am more than what I lose. I am the choice I make tonight. War asks for hate and calls the answer just, Attachment begs me, “Hold or turn to dust.” I guard what lives, yet will not make it mine; No soul is saved by tightening the line. I serve the weak, I face the blade alone, But power is a path I will not own. The battlefield is shouting, Revenge is dressed as right - I hear the pulse beneath it And answer without spite. Peace is not the silence of a heart denied, It is standing in the fire with the light alive. Knowledge through the shadow, calm within the cry, Harmony is choosing love without possession’s chain. When death comes near, I will not close my eyes - I am more than what I lose. I am the choice I make tonight. No feeling is my master. No ignorance my shield. No passion owns the future. No chaos rules the field. No ending breaks the current That carries every name. The Force receives the fallen; I rise to serve again. Peace is not forgetting every face I leave behind, It is bearing them with mercy, never using grief to bind. Knowledge, calm, and harmony - each tested, each renewed; Not the death of all I cherish, But the death of fear’s command. With an open heart, I stand. The war may take tomorrow. It will not take who I am.