Has Blogger sorted us out? I must apologise to many, many commenters. Your comments were caught in that dismal dark hell of a spam folder that I rarely check but will do so more frequently. The platform has been iffy lately and I know Nick and Ramana have problems and now I'm seeing my own. Anyway, I see their heads are up today so maybe Blogger has fixed it. Vast apologies to Secret Agent Woman whose every comment for the past year has wound its way into that hell.
Reflection on Aging
We do not grow large as we age
We shrink in all things.
Our demands are the smallest of birds
Timid and shy, flying away
To invisible trees.
Our desires are few and private
Lying unfulfilled on bare ground.
Our opinions lurk, hesitantly fearful of
The prey of younger, sharper minds.
Our circles wink smaller in the fading light.
Shrinking until we are the only holder
Of youthful, joyful memories of beloveds
Long gone.
Hunching down to count pills, count money, count meals, count hours, count bills paid and unpaid.
Fearful of that nameless elder unhome of unassistance, unmeals and unindependence lurking out there somewhere
Ready to grab us by the throat if we slip and fall
Into helplessness.
Wisewebwoman -April 2022.
What wise and sober words, WWW! It's like you've read my own senior mind! And the slip and fall monster is certainly lurking in wait! ARgghhh!!!
ReplyDeleteExactly OTP. I am super careful about picking up anything I want to leave on the floor and no slippery mats, etc. I can't count the number of hip and pelvis fractures I have observed which really put an end to independence.
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It was "Our desires are few and private/Lying unfulfilled on bare ground" that caught my breath. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that the last two years washed away physical abilities, leaving some dreams likely forever unfulfilled. You've written a plaint, a lamentation, that we all feel at times but cannot all state so evocatively. I don't stay in this mind-place all the time. I hope you don't, either.
ReplyDeleteNo Linda, I don't. I still cling to a few dreams and keep my mind doing aerobics (!) to fend off the more obvious ailments. But sometimes a glitch catches me unaware :)
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Blogger is certainly messing with us. Very, very successfully.
ReplyDeleteOuch at your poem. Very, very true here. Frighteningly so.
I caught you in the spam bucket, EC. I'll have to check it every day now. Yes, agreed on the ouches. Ever present.
DeleteXO
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WWW, I think the spam problem is happening to everyone, certainly me. I'll just pop my head down into the sand regarding your poem.
ReplyDeleteI know Andrew, some tell me it hits far too close to the bone.
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That poem is quite sad and I am determined to keep my independence as long as possible. I don't have a spam folder, or I can't find it.
ReplyDeleteRiver: If you go to your comments folder at the top of the page there is a downward arrow. Clicking on that arrow will show you the comments that blogger has decided are spam.
DeleteWhat EC says River. What blogger decides is "spam" is mind boggling. Some of my commenters had been commenting here for years and years and all of a sudden are "spam"? Really frustrating.
DeleteXO
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Nice to see the creative juices flowing again in verse form.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ramana.
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I have been having problems with commenting, too. It disappears after it has been published. Very frustrating. As for the poem, it is very sad. Gigi-Hawaii
ReplyDeleteHi Gigi, these problems seem to be across the board. I do hope they fix them.
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I seem to only be allowed to comment if I go with Anonymous or Name/URL, and the latter is tiresome. I used to be allowed to comment with my Blogname, but now it tells me I can't do that, because my browser disallows third party cookies and Blogger doesn't like that. Effing cookies. Anyway, good poem, addresses how so many of our culture's shortcomings affect us old folks.
ReplyDeleteExactly Annie, I tried to do that hearing so many stories out there from seniors and their worries and absence of care in the light of financial terrorism with way below poverty level fixed incomes. I do hope blogger starts behaving itself.
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"Our circles wink smaller in the fading light.
ReplyDeleteShrinking until we are the only holder
Of youthful, joyful memories of beloveds
Long gone."
Beautiful words! :)
thank you Damyanti. Old age can get very lonely indeed.
DeleteXO
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Ouch,that poem hurts. But poems should hurt now and then. Dang-blast New Blogger and its erratic behaviour.
ReplyDeleteDang blast is right Charlotte. It's all about cookies and money, right? Nothing is "free" on the web.
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I'm not afraid of younger, sharper minds. I find that some youngsters are incredibly sharp and quick-witted (which is welcome), but others are less so and often don't understand what I'm explaining to them.
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