Appraisal

Today I will thank and sing and praise
   for a sole memory of our shared creations
   turns my grief into striving,
   dissolves my tears in joy;
   for a sole memory of our shared struggles
   turns my pride into surrender,
   my vanity into love.

Today I will thank and cry and hush
   for the enchanting surety of fashion
   my lost limbs once craved,
   and the countless flaws and weaknesses
   my feeble mind now finds,
   my heart sees only as the light
   those falsities won't drown,
   as the mask your fear wears to conceal
   the injured purity of your soul.

Today I will thank the presence now replacing me
   for it tells me it will soon be replaced by more,
   as a child is all children and a man is all men
   and the wonders we found in each other abide in us all
   and the wonders we lived in each other invoke their own renewal
   for the wonders of our senses will be shattered without end
   til the dawn of our infinite sun.

Today I will untiringly thank and mourn and celebrate
   for these words have been countlessly uttered and misunderstood
   and will be endlessly uttered and misunderstood
   as to remind us of the darkness our conceited minds bare,
   remind us of the inexpressible, luminiscent reality pulsating in our souls.

(Barcelona, 23/05/01)