We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

1.2.24

Old Age: a Silver Lining

 

Eighty-four,

and not yet ready

to be gone –

but, with luck,

I'll pre-decease the looming

end of our planet.



Form: shadorma


Written for Friday Writings #112: Silver lining, at Poets and Storytellers United. 




32 comments:

  1. Hope that's not for a while. I feel sorry for the young generation. All this doom. Although more scary stuff to come with all these war threats atm

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    1. I too hope that's not for a while – either my own end or the planet's. But it's getting a bit hard to think either will last forever!

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  2. I'm with you, Rosemary. I had a good friend, a long distance one, blogging friend. She and I had a race to see who would become OBE first, I would have won anyway, but she died a few months before she reached eighty. Now I'm at ninety. At Sydney that year we were fairly close to her residence at SHEPPARTON, VIC., AUSTRALIA, but didn't make it. That year was the one she died (OBE is Over Bloody Eight).
    ..
    ..

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    1. Jim, you're at ninety! You're doing so wonderfully well, you give me great encouragement.

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  3. Goodness... wasn't expecting that poem... luckily the earth, even with its human-made catastrophes, isn't going anywhere for a very long time..so let's keep doing this poetry thing forever!!

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  4. Age is not criterion for the final adieu for the final abode. An eighty-year-old is eighty years young. Your mind will keep you young and energetic. Nice lines.

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    1. Thank you. A friend once told me of a woman he knew who died at a great old age, but whose mind and character were such that poeople said she gave new meaning to the saying, 'The good die young.'

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  5. Wise words. All of us will be gone one day.
    Earth will hopefully remain.

    May God give you a long life.
    May you keep writing!
    May all work for our planet & may our Earth have a long life too...

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    1. Thank you for those lovely prayers! Which I'll happily echo.

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  6. I suspect you have a long way to go and that similarly to the planet it is a matter of good health not years.

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  7. You're faring very well Rosemary....must be all that Northern Rivers fresh air !
    .....

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  8. I know this is no laughing matter, but I totally burst into laughter. I love the way you see life. I really do.

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    1. Oh, that's a good kind of laughter! I understand it.

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  9. Love your shadorma .... I have no doubt you are here to entertain and delight us for a long long time. On Magaly's wavelength, I giggled a bit as I read this ~~~~~

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    1. Well I certainly hope so, Helen! And I'm glad your reaction wasn't gloomy; the piece wasn't meant to be.

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  10. I hope both events are a long way off. I do feel for my children. I'm younger than you, and I hope to outlive my dog. I can't bear to think of him back in the shelter. Of course, that's nothing compared to the end of the planet.

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    1. Thank you Lisa, I hope so too. And I do understand – I hope to outlive my precious cat so that her safe and pleasant old age is not disrupted.

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  11. "not yet ready"...This is good.

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  12. 84 - you are doing it right! I appreciate your art and encouragement!

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    1. Oh, that comment made me laugh with pleasure. Thank you.

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  13. Even though there is seriousness to your poem, there is also a smile amongst the lines--which is how I see you living life! Good to read you again, Rosemary!

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    1. Thank you! I'm so glad you perceive that smile within the seriousness..

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  14. Good one, Rosemary. I know exactly what you mean.

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