Aging With Grace

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Written: November 14, 2023 For Robert James Liguori _____________________________________ Sitting in my comfy chair with my injured knees Insouciant spent time alone with my disease. In which my companion bade me farewell. To hoard a spot for me in her paradise dwell. Dreams I had as a child flooded my mind. Eat, study, and play without anguish or grind. Being older never induced a query. Neither did I pursue my parents' theory. My languor body is ripe and showing its age. It subsists, yet I witness a lassitude page. In a mirror, I view a mellifluous, sketchy shape. Upon the eyes of a child, struggle to escape. I used to be a ring, all brilliant and smooth. I slid through the night's lightning and sleuth. Casting jovial rays in a haphazard course While vestigial bellows heralded each source. In this woebegone life, age, and frailty show. As lichen cypress, we sway, graying, and slow. We admit amorphous days to be a ripe apple. Progeria grip pushes youth to grapple. once robust and blooming stems of youth. We aquiver to mellow, writhe, and cough. Our eyes bore witness to the events of life. The exquisite scene is a symphony of strife. A sunken summer reveals a winter of fading light. And the gossamers will be wilting before sight. And the blithely petals will shortly wither away. In a broken bucket, once balmy blooms display.

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Valsa George

Date: 11/17/2023 3:56:00 AM

I always envy your rhymes. They come to you so naturally whatever be the theme you handle. Much changes come over our body and life with age. We are different in many ways from what we have been as children. Much beauty has drained away from life. Still we can age with grace. Now with age, my vision is so much dimmer. But I accept it rather than cry over it. Loved reading this beautiful poem in which you fondle the sweet memories of your childhood in your leisurely hours.

Sara Kendrick

Date: 11/15/2023 4:30:00 AM

Congratulations on this winning work in this special contest. Way to go. Thank you for sharing your talent with us. Sara K..Sad to learn of an injured knee.

Bill Baker

Date: 11/14/2023 9:59:00 PM

Your rhyming and imagery were exquisite in this fine poem, Sotto. Your insights into aging or right on spot, my friend. It is a challenge to accept what is for what it is, and age with dignity and grace. It's the unknowable that causes the greatest damage to our minds as we age. We all want to know the answers to our whys, until we realize the present moment is where it all happens in life. Being in the moment is the bliss of our earthly experience. Thanks for sharing, my dear friend. Bill

Sara Etgen-Baker

Date: 11/14/2023 3:21:00 PM

dearest Sotto--I loved your poetic craftsmanship, the weaving of childhood dreams with aging. I felt twinges of sadness as I read, "Sitting in my comfy chair with my injured knees..Insouciant spent time alone with my disease. In which my companion bade me farewell." To be abandoned when disease and ailments come is heartbreaking. Hard not to become bitter. Am misty eyed. Your poem with its imagery evoked a host of emotions in me. Loved "sunken summer reveals a winter of fading light." Faving!

Silent One

Date: 11/14/2023 2:06:00 PM

Lovely poem Sotto, we need to age with grace, we always keep our childhood memories with us... we cannot help what happens in life, but we should be content with that which we can control.. your poem flows and rhymes so well as always.. A pleasure to read.

Ink Empress

Date: 11/14/2023 12:37:00 PM

A very nostalgic write that reflects and thinks back on innocence and calmness of childhood and how so much changed with age and time. You’ve expressed so much here in such profound manner. Each line conveying so much in sheer eloquence with brilliant metaphors and alliterations as well as rhymes: i love the line “ A sunken summer reveals a winter of fading light.“ what a way to depict aging with grace. Clever line that sums the whole theme of the poem so well. Congratulations on winning too