Singing With Avocets

 —Poetry by Linda Klein, Playa Vista, CA
—Photos Courtesy of Public Domain

 

 

 LOOK AT ME, I’M SOARING
         
I'll fly with the wings of an avocet
as strong and as swift as a bird can get,
over meadow and over field.
Old age will never make me yield.

I rise each morning with the sun,
ready for laughter, ready for fun.
There are so many things for me to do.
My life is exciting and joyous too.

Avocet, avocet, look at me.  I'm soaring.
Avocet, avocet, so graceful and enduring.

 

 

 

A HALLELUJAH FOR AGING
           
    (with my sincere appreciation to Leonard
    Cohen for inspiring me with his incomp-
    arable song, "Hallelujah")

A time will come when you'll look around,
as though you heard a trumpet sound.
You'll realize that nothing will renew you.
You had a major fall, a minor shift,
while Heaven's angels sang sweet hallelujah.

You'll feel a nudge and wonder why.
You never heard a word.  You sigh.
If your reply makes no sense, let them sue you.
Your hearing's bad.  What can you do?
Old age has got the best of you, hallelujah.

You check the mirror on the wall.
Who can that be, a tortured soul?
Life has really messed you up and screwed you.
Your face is wrinkled as a prune.
You hear a sad and mournful tune.  Hallelujah.

How did the time fly by so fast?
You're ready for a body cast
and taking fifty pills a day.  Will they do you?
Some make you sleepy as a cat,
or jumpy as a gnat shouting hallelujah.

So just relax and take a rest.
Perhaps with slumber you'll be blessed.
Be sure to get your Covid shot and booster.
What you can't change, you must accept.
This shaky world will undo you.  Hallelujah.

 

 

 

I CANNOT STOP MY SINGING

Life goes on in endless song in spite of grief and
sorrow.
The strains of a faraway tune promise a new
tomorrow.
Through great confusion and strife I hear music
ringing.
There is an echo in my soul.  I cannot stop my
singing.

When my joy and comfort dies, my spirit still
upholds me.
When darkness surrounds, night music still
consoles me.
Storms will not shake my inner peace to which
I am clinging.
I have faith it will see me through.  I cannot stop
my singing.

In the sky the dark cloud rolls by with only blue
behind it,
and every day grows clearer now.  My true path,
I will find it.
The peace here within my heart is a fountain that
is springing.
What I need, I will find.  It is true.  I cannot stop
my singing.

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled.

—Maya Angelou

____________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Linda Klein for today’s fine poetry!

 

 

 

 

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