On My 60th Year Of Solitude..... Poem by RIC BASTASA

on my sixtieth year
when the lanzones tree
showed its budding branches
and back to life again
after the long drought
in the peninsula
i have delineated the
flesh from its spirit
like a coat from the seed
naked to sprout before
the sun.

and then everything followed,
wit and humor,
self-criticism and competition,
love from lust, ambition from
greed, money from its slavery,
books from paper, use and friendship,
yes, from there everything followed,
wisdom from knowledge
forgiveness from hate, and
as my heart went into pieces,
i gathered them all one by one
piece by piece, to make it whole
again, because of you
who loves me in return.