Hold On To Everything Poem by RIC BASTASA

surely you have hands and surely you know how to use
your hands
like holding on tightly to joys and sorrows
holding on to pains and reliefs
holding on to misgivings and thanksgivings
and hate and love and giving and taking and speaking and silence
you hold on to whatever
in the place where you are an alien
to all things honorable and miserable, defeats and triumphs,
losses and gains, you must hold on, you must tightly hold on
to life.