Remember that a black seed, planted in a 

brown earth, turns into a green plant

which becomes a white rose.

 

 

Faced with hostility,

give out a hand of friendship.

 

 

Learn to see, and not just to look,

learn to listen, and not just hear,

learn to unwrap the gift of life you have been given.

For within, lies the secret of all the splendid 

world which surrounds you.

 

 

Take out a loan from the bank of happiness.

Keep the overdraft going all your life.

 

 

As a candle gradually burns away,

its only satisfaction can be that it has given

its light for a good purpose.

Your life is also a candle burning away . . .

Make sure you do not waste its light.

 

 

Why has no one yet invented poem-vending machines?

Perhaps because modern man will not buy such goods.

Stop and think of the wonders of the world.

The mystery of our galaxy.

The puzzle of ourselves.

The miracle of every single thing,

animate or inanimate which you can

touch 

feel

smell

taste

or hear.

This is your first lesson in faith.

 

 

Awareness is the birth of caring.

Wonder is the birth of understanding.

Starting is the birth of living.

Ending is the birth of . . .

the mystery of the unending.

 

 

The only thing man is certain about are his doubts.

 

 

The day after yesterday is the day before tomorrow.

After and before are only relative to now.

Now is your only true time.

Use it wisely,

the rest will take care of itself.

 

 

When you cry

collect your tears.

When you laugh

collect your smiles.

Freeze them.

Make sure your freezer has more smile-jars than tear-jars.

This is a successful formula to follow,

and useful for the stocktaking of your whole existence.

 

 

Try and measure the time between:

the day before never and the day after eternity.

 

 

Feelings from the heart

expressed on paper

are like fragrant flowers

immortalised beyond time.

 

 

Chase an echo.

Once you reach it,

overtake it.

 

 

Enlarge love.

Diminish love.

Mould love as you please.

But never, never destroy love.

 

 

You have all your life time,

to decide where you would like to spend eternity.

Only your life time,

and not one second more.

 

 

Why birth?

Why life?

Why death?

Why why?

 

 

The most precious gift

one can give, is time.

Time from one's own limited time.

 

 

Measure:

The perfume of a rose.

The age of the wind.

The height of the sky.

The colour of poetry.

The intensity of love.

 

 

When you grow old,

employ a team of archeologists

to dig up your past.

Make sure, during your life time,

that their finds are

rare, precious and beautiful.

 

 

Within every day of our lives

each one of us has

one thousand four hundred and forty minutes

during which to perform one beautiful and useful deed.

Judging by the state man is in today,

a lot of time has been wasted.

 

 

Maps are useful documents for getting to,

or getting out of places.

I have drawn a special map.

In order to get lost, follow this map.

Once you are lost,

you are free from this pad troubled world.

Keep this map a secret.

It is the only way to guarantee your freedom.

 

 

Take your secret sadnesses.

Burn theeir dark shades and shadows.

From the penetrating odour of sorrow,

inhale and nurture only the promising perfume of a fertile future.

 

 

A wave breaks against a rock.

The sea quickly gathers its fragments to try again.

Finally it is the rock which is eroded.

 

 

After the flood,

God put a rainbow in the sky.

Where have all its colours gone?

Dedicate your life to finding at least one of them.

 

 

 

Previously unpublished: Selectiosn from letters written by the author to
 his daughter during her stay at school abroad. (1979)