Dedicated to my teachers. You know who
you are…
Even to struggle mightily,
One has to be capable of
mighty things.
To feel great sorrow,
one needs to be capable
of greatness.
To grow angry or sad,
a person has to be able
to grow.
To learn even the hard way,
one finds out that he has the capacity
to learn.
Before one can fall from grace,
one has to have been bestowed
a place of grace
to begin with.
After taking two steps backward,
it dawned on me
that progress was only a possibility because
I had once taken
those same steps forward.
Now I only had to recall how
I’d managed the forward steps,
and learn to love the forward progress enough
to maintain it.
To sit and remember the good old days,
I had to have once lived them.
And I should be thankful always
even for what was in the past
or has simply been taken away.
To have been blessed is still a blessing,
even when it is viewed
in retrospect.
I miss my late mother.
It was a tragedy to have lost her
while she was young,
but it would be an even greater
tragedy if after her untimely passing,
I didn’t feel a sense of loss
and miss her badly.
I miss my youth at times.
At least I was fortunate enough
to have had a childhood.
Not all people are afforded the luxury of being able
to just be young while they are.
I wish there was more room in my house.
Homeless souls have the entire world to stretch out in,
but wish for the friendly confines of any home,
even one more modest than mine.
To be grounded, you have to
have once had freedom.
The secret is to have enjoyed freedom
while it was yours.
My future isn’t secure,
but I will be more capable of living within my means
now that I have learned to live simply
while I was treated to a bout of poverty.
Prosperity will be appreciated and
never again be taken for granted.
When I lost my beautiful head of hair,
I was given a gift of time
to use as I please
as I don’t have to spend it
tending to what’s no longer there.
I will never recapture my youth,
but then my youth was overshadowed
with ignorance and ineptitude.
With the time I have, I will be able to
apply wisdom,
feel compassion,
recognize blessings,
and give thanks.
I am aware now
of the sources of ill feelings such as
regret, remorse, and resentment.
I will be judicious
with the world around me, and
minimize the damage left in my wake.
I am realizing
the real treasures in life
cannot be listed on an insurance dossier.
When the last of my breath has left me,
the sum of my treasure will be entombed
in my stilled heart, and assembled there
at my resting place.
I hope the assembly is large,
and glad to have
known me.
I hope the bounty of their personal treasures
is swelled with my contribution,
and that they too
see that value
is in the life we live and
not piled about their properties.
Between now and then,
I’m going to make the world a better place,
And wish for my time and life
to be remembered
and hopefully become a part of
the treasures of others.
Matthew Lyle Landsman
July 22, 2008
Matthew Lyle Landsman 