That old man in the chair
with the still, spotted hands
hunched over on his porch
and gazing into nowhere.
His youth has ran,
on the ground he lands.
No one seems to care,
and onto them, his dead eyes stare.
These are poems about time, poems about the process of maturation, poems about aging and growing old, poems about life's journey and its destination...
Learning to Fly
by Michael R. Burch
We are learning to fly
every day . . .
......
Since early middle-age
(say around forty)
I've been writing about ageing,
poems in many registers:
fearful, enraged or accepting
as I moved through the decades.
Now that I'm really old
there seems little left to say.
Pointless to bewail
......
My days pass pleasantly away;
My nights are blest with sweetest sleep;
I feel no symptoms of decay;
I have no cause to mourn nor weep;
My foes are impotent and shy;
My friends are neither false nor cold,
And yet, of late, I often sigh-
I am growing old!
My growing talk of olden times,
......
Sweet recollections of youth,
tiny giants in immense world.
When days were lite and slow,
birthdays scarce and Christmas distant.
Knowledge... perspective
mortality, brutal realities
swelling with years
shrinking the world.
......
Though my world view become tarnished with age,
Let my imagination not so follow.
May its memory burn bright with the vigor of eager youth,
Happy to confront the dichotomy of discovery,
Which doesn't comport with my upbringing, my schooling, or my experience.
Only then will my self-worth meet the expectation of my promise.
Only then will I fulfill the destiny that Providence allows.
That pool can magnify, fool, and obscure.
But down at the bottom, that pool can cure.
......
Sweet recollections of youth,
tiny giants in immense world.
When days were lite and slow,
birthdays scarce and Christmas distant.
Knowledge... perspective
mortality, brutal realities
swelling with years
shrinking the world.
......
A scowl...
With hands on face
We are marked,
Stalked… and prey
Ticking away in escape
It cannot be saved
Moments pass behind us
Now becomes then
......
Achy bones like brittle tree bark
Stretching skin ripping like paper
Numb tendons lagging behind
Emotions mixed like soup on a cold day
Confused in finding a footing
Changes etched in aging eyes
Renewed perspective aching with stretching numbness
Growing up means experiencing new Pains.
Is getting old just adding years
Or is it really more subtraction?
Every birthday is a celebration
Of advancing bravely life’s frontier.
But joining all the jubilation
Comes the sadder revelation
That age is not all it may appear.
For every act there is reaction.
What wisdom seniors may acquire
......