by Jane Tawel
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Poems on Not Growing Old — But Aging
by Jane Tawel
(Family)
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Poems on Not Growing Old — but Aging
Shall we age, but not grow old?
Poem 1
By Jane Tawel
August 13, 2024
Shall we age, but not grow old?
Figures of speech,
becoming
more important than keeping our figures.
Old happens.
Aging, like good wine,
good cheese,
and good life,
old is not, but
aging is a choice.
© Jane Tawel, 2024
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(us)
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How We Go Through Life at Our Age
Poem 2
By Jane Tawel
August 12, 2024
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We shall go through life as guests now.
Not always honored,
often merely put up with.
We are invited as a duty,
as the rather tattered
Shattered
Battered
Pieces of what used to be.
Do we still seem Whole to you?
I doubt we ever did.
But now the part we played
is a piece of the past
and it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Oh, I understand –I was once young too,
Believe it or not.
No, it doesn’t do
for the young to look too closely
at our wrinkled hands and brows,
our sagging guts and breasts,
our lack of hair, and lack of –
of —
of….
oh, what is that darn word I was searching for?
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Oh, if only you could see beyond
what you think of as lack,
to the wealth we hide in back
of our front-facing old shells,
and see to the inside,
our true selves.
Minds slower but fuller,
bodies weaker, but battle-scarred,
hearts congested with so much love
that eventually they break.
Don’t let the doctors fool you
with the scientific diagnosis.
In the end,
our hearts break from carrying
So much love.
So much love.
Oh, So.
Much.
Love.
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And we will agree to attend
to you and your events,
only because we keep hoping
against hope
that the treasure we could bestow,
the wisdom path we could show you
will at some time
some where
some how
be enough,
be enough —
for those of you we so love.
We only want to help.
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Yes!
We have always loved you
More than you could know,
More than all the leaves on all the trees,
More than all the stars in all the skies,
More than all the wishes on all the birthday candles,
More than all the babies born and all the graves filled,
More than Time itself,
Yes! Forever and a day.
Oh,
More than all of all of everything –
have we loved you —
More than our own lives —
And, we could hoping
that we here and now
will break through! —
to you, my dearest dears.
Oh, we could, old as we are,
Raise you up — help you rise above
the sick darkness of the Times
and the viral condescension of youth
and the aching, longing of dreams still incubating
in your dear, dear hearts –
we hope to show, to share,
the strength, the care,
that only age can bring
and you will see at last,
we will shine!
We gift to you, if you can take it —
The gift of age
Shining through and upon and in —
Searing light
Light of Seers.
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We give our attention
to the minutiae of you,
and to the essential essence of you as well.
Because there is nothing we love so well as you.
And what the hell,
We show up,
with hearts aching
and minds breaking
Because we,
who have lived so long,
are really still just children,
and we ache to be loved
not as we were,
not as one day we might be,
(or rather when we might not be),
But just as you do,
We long to be loved
just as we are.
© Jane Tawel, 2024
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(Run Happy)
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This is the Fun Part
Poem 3 — A Haiku
By Jane Tawel, August 13, 2024
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This is so much fun.
Free to be you and me.
Getting old is great.
© Jane Tawel, 2024
Jane Tawel 