small monuments

to smile occassionally.
to form opinions, both good and bad.
to feel and to feel good.
to know the touch of another.
to watch the sky at night
and to count the foreign seas of a new moon.
to find a sympathetic ear.
to know passion and to forget it.
to know love and to regret it.
to taste the smoke of another's breath.
to have a familiar place to rest your head
and a strange and swelling world in which that restless head may roam.
to be useful.
to be quiet when needed.
to be weak when necessary.
to know the feel of warm water down the canal of your back.
to be young sometimes.
to grow up.
to see the sun rise before going back to bed
and to know that even the earth perspires.