My Friends

My friends, I wish you peace.
No love have I to give.
I wish you satisfaction in yourself,
As long as you shall live.

I wish you loneliness,
So in true love you may realize,
The comfort of kindly spoken words
And the music of lovers' sighs.

I wish you a blindness
To the harsh light of reality,
So then the glaring weaknesses
In me you shall not see.

I wish you an everlasting courtship
With the good things in life.
I wish you a freedom
From the bitterness and strife.

I wish you an understanding
Without prejudice and condemnation;
A world free of spitefullness and hate;
Free of envy and degradation.

Yes, my friends, I wish you peace --
A peace I've yet to find --
A peace of heart and soul,
A peace of body and of mind.