Imagine how I felt
When your wife told me
How you've changed
No longer the intellectual
Or spiritual seeker of truth
You've finally accepted
The little piece of truth
That satisfies you
Body and mind shrinking
Now your truth fits perfectly
In small parameters
The truth is
Now you seek what's left of life
Not to analyze or understand
Definitely not to expand
There's nothing left to stretch
All you find now are contractions
Birth in reverse
Imagine how I feel
Me, I still seek
Still find quality in life
My little truths still want to grow
But one truth is especially clear
As I learn of your slow demise:
It's fear I recognize
In impending truth
Of my own shrinking life
I can well imagine, Myrna, as loved ones' parameters grow ever more reduced. There must be a stage where one lives in the present moment until that moment ends. We are thankfully not there yet. But we know where we are going. I so love the shadow photograph of you and Leroy.
ReplyDeletePowerful!
ReplyDeleteZQ
Ouch.
ReplyDeletePainful truths - beautifully expressed.
Hmmm, but quality in life perhaps resides in other things?
ReplyDeleteA powerful poem. I think that when we witness what is happening to another person we can't help reflecting that this will be our reality at some point. So we are sad for the other person, but also sad for ourselves at the same time, that all comes to this eventually.
ReplyDeleteIt is always so strange, when we see those we used to know and find out that they are almost nothing like what they used to be (and not in the best way). We feel like we, too, have lost something.
ReplyDeleteWe all have to weigh up the value of our lives. Of course there are mistakes and regrets but in the end ask yourself did you give as much or more love in your life as you received.
ReplyDeleteNow your truth fits perfectly
ReplyDeleteIn small parameters... to find this truth about a loved one would be so harsh but it is more difficult to figure out what it says about us. Wonderfully reflective.
Myrna, I feel this is an apt description of my own mother or may be of everyone slowly approaching sunset.
ReplyDeleteThis is a well written reflection that reaches out to the reader, asking for more than a casual response,
DeleteElizabeth
An impactful and emotive write. It is sad to see those we know and care about begin to falter. But, as we ourselves age, it takes on a element of fear. You have articulated that - powerfully - in this piece, Myrna.
ReplyDeleteThe sadness and weight of feeling really hit home in this poem
ReplyDeleteMyrna, I can't even begin to describe how incredibly touching your poem is. The tone, the emotions which you portray tug directly at the heartstrings. Beautifully penned.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet....we all change, everything changes, as we speak, we see it everywhere, nature teaches us, if we pay attention. It is not our plan. It was given to us, and it is for us to accept what we are given, not to whine or complain, because it isn't exactly what we wanted. Life isn't like that, I just read an article in the Sun, A walk on the Wld Side, Joe Hutto's Life With Animals, Al Kesselheim, and I am grateful the life we experience isn't as brutual as the life of wild animals or creatures under the sea. We are born, we live, and we die...this is pretty much it. And we say to each other, "How are you doing?" When in reality we are trying to determine, how we are doing?
ReplyDeleteThose of us who are older, say don't waste it, life is brief. We do our best, and probably never really measure up to what we expect of ourselves. I am not sure how you feel, perhaps it is just too hard, and maybe we each feel differently...the day comes, everyone is gone....do we really want to stay? Haven't we earned a retirement -- from life? Or is life so precious, we would trade anything for just a few more days?
When my husband of some 40 years died, I wondered, how much would have been enough? Would I have been satisfied with a few more days?
Perhaps dealing with our own grief is the question. A hard thing to do, and today is as good as any day to deal with the grief of our own passing, get it out of the way so we can move on, get done what we need to do, make the days we have count. Tell the ones you love that you love them, tell yourself. Be gentle with yourself. With the knowledge when the time comes you will be ready, and it is OK. Thank you for you poem today, you can see, you made me think.
Thank YOU Annell for your thoughtful comment. I got so much out reading your reflections. Made me focus on my gratitude for this gift of life. Made me even consider that death too is a gift.
DeleteI remind myself, "it is impossible to imagine a time when we were not here, and when we will not be here in the future" (Can't think who said this?)...but when all is quiet, and all the ones we love are gone, will our imaginations be set free?
ReplyDeleteIt is always comforting to know, "No one goes before his time." (Again I can't think who said that?)