"Moment"

I'm reading "The Freedom Writers Diary" (which I bought at the ASU Bookstore, together with a pile of other books, now resting comfortably on my bookcase) and I'd like to share this beautiful poem with you. It moved me deeply.

"Moment"

Let him wish his life
For the sorrows of a stone
Never knowing the first thread
Of these
Never knowing the pain of ice
As its crystals slowly grow
Needles pressing it on the heart

To live forever
And never feel a thing
To wait a million lifetimes
Only to erode and become sand
Wish not for the stone
But for the fire
Last only moments
But change everything

Oh to be lightning
To exist for less than a moment
Yet in that moment
To expose the world to every open eye
Oh to be thunder
To clap and ring
To rumble into memories
Minds and spines

To chill the soul and shake the very ground
Pounding even the sand
Into smaller pieces
Or the mountain
Brooding, extinct
Yet gathering for one fatal moment
The power to blow the top clean off the world
Oh to last the blink of an eye and leave nothing
But nothing unmoved behind you

Vincent Guilliano - January 9, 1991

What would you choose: to live an eternity and not change a thing around you, or exist for the blink of an eye and alter everything?