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# Legacy
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/legacy/
- Published: 2026-06-06T13:40:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-06T13:40:00.000Z
- Description: “Legacy,” a little alchemy between memories and shadows, energy is neither lost nor formed, only borrowed. Written Saturday, June 06, poem 157 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, "Windswept Shadows" by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Poems, Short-form Musings, Absence, Bones, Directed, DNA, Dust, Energies, Energy, Existence, Feelings, Future, Generations, June, Legacy, Lessons, Linger, Living, Matter, Memories, Presence, Purpose, Remain, Shadows, Something Bigger, Trashed, Void, Windswept, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

When we are gone  
when our bones are dust  
when are DNA is deteriorated   
and when our belongings   
are repurposed,   
thrifted, trashed:  
What will remain?  
  
What imprint   
will our brief presence   
on this orb leave  
for those who linger?  
  
How will our memories   
convert to larger lessons  
for future generations?  
  
What do we want   
the echoes of our absence  
to press into the living?   
  
We know that energy  
is never lost, nor formed  
it is only borrowed.  
  
And perhaps it is the same  
with emotions,   
with hopes,   
dreams, passions.  
  
I hope to leave a legacy  
of kindness  
of compassion  
of wit  
of joy  
of deeply felt existence.  
  
I hope the energies that   
fed me  
pushed me  
directed my purpose  
find new homes in   
the ripples and shimmers   
seen in jangling shadows  
cast by windswept   
leafy branches.  
  
A little hint,   
a wisp   
of something bigger  
in the void   
of my physical self.