“This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance.”
The Buddha, as quoted by Sogyal Rinpoche                    

Tiny clear Crystal Jellies,
 Purple-striped Jellies
   moving with slow, undulating grace
  through bands of light and darkness
and outside the glass, a young couple,
 faces close, share this dance.

Comb Jellies, delicate diamond spheres,
 release their long fronds
     to gather plankton.
  An older woman remarks
         to no one in particular,
 “That’s so amazing!
         You know, they have no brains, no hearts.”
I think, her life too, from egg to grave,
         would move with such grace
     if I had eyes of long vision.

Sea Nettles,
       saffron diaphragms, pulsing –
 plumes and threads
     swirling through the water
  as they slowly descend.
A father tell his young kids
     about the painful stings
       of these jewels,
  but the youngest
    dances smiling in a circle,
 her coat overhead as a mantle
      fingers undulating in the air,
      quietly singing,
 “I’m a jelly baby.
      “I’m a jelly baby.”

 Grace & Ernest Lowe May 13, 1993 at the Monterey Aquarium