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)