Is it a Gift, or is it a Curse?

Is it a gift, or is it a curse:

To be placed in the universe,

Living here in this body’s form

And to its demands to conform?

Like a cage, in it we are housed:

A blessing, or a curse pronounced?

A cause to exult or to lament,

To be to Earth in a body sent?

What can we say, what can we tell,

Of this in the world our brief spell,

The short time that here we spend

In this body which to us You lend?