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Posted 1/28/2019 12:41 PM (GMT -5)
had to update my signature. I'm now officially 59.

7 years ago I was halfway through my RT treatments.
This morning I wrote a poem about being older:
====================================
The cold light of dawn
plays in my mind.
The smell of frost
and the ache in my bones
conspire to pull the robe
tighter around my shoulders
as I sip tea to the pink grey east glow.

A cat rubs past my ankle
begging to taste the air
and discover a new day.

=========
sigh ...
Last night my wife and I went out for a birthday dinner. Steak, potatoes, red wine, but no desert. Now I suspect the red meat will kill me, but the wine will save my life. Haven't checked the studies today, so it could be the other way around: steak good, wine bad.
Posted 1/28/2019 1:51 PM (GMT -5)
Steak bad, wine good, poetry bad
Posted 1/28/2019 2:44 PM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday Andrew!

Another year older
a friend on the 'net
a pretty good guy,
I haven't met yet.

Maybe it's not meant
That we should meet
The help he gives others
Is theirs to keep

My gift for this man
Is not something new
Just zero's for ever
Is my wish for you
Posted 1/28/2019 2:51 PM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday

I’m hitting 59 this June. Only one year left of pretending I’m not old. 😉
Posted 1/28/2019 5:40 PM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday Andrew. Keep the poetry coming.

Oh, and “wine good, steak better”
Posted 1/28/2019 5:52 PM (GMT -5)
IT - thanks for the poem!
Matmax - you can pretend to be young at any age. We're already old. ;)
Prat - Thanks! Both were excellent.
Posted 1/28/2019 6:57 PM (GMT -5)
Happy birthday, Andrew!

Don't forget that Peter Pan WAS right. Growing older is inevitable. Growing up is not. . .
Posted 1/28/2019 7:38 PM (GMT -5)
"Steak bad, wine good, poetry bad"

No, no, no!

This is not a bad poem!

Andrew, it's the job of a literary critic to be honest, and while there are elements in others of your poems that did more to catch my attention, this one here does have one unusual, curious, and interesting feature to it.

That is that you have paired concepts that are not normally thought of as appearing together:

cold light smell of frost taste the air

These unexpected associations challenge some readers to ask: how light can be cold, or frost can be smelled, or air tasted?

So that for them there arises a complexity that perhaps distracts them from the central message of the poem.

But you are in good company in the use of such technique. In "Fern Hill " Dylan Thomas tells us "... the foxes on the hill barked clear and cold." While we may not know what a cold-barking fox is, the image he presents us is intriguing.

But this, and any, poem, is what the reader makes of it. Many would be struck by this unconventional imagery.
Posted 1/28/2019 8:44 PM (GMT -5)
This poem gives words to feelings that I can not. Others have too. Thanks!
Posted 1/28/2019 11:12 PM (GMT -5)
Paxton - Exactly, words to live by
Jakester - thanks!
81 - again I appreciate your literary critical comments. I love the comparison of dissimilar things - especially the senses: smell a color, taste a noise, etc. I have always thought that adds emotional layers to the image I am trying to build. I once wrote a poem from the prompt, "Hard as nails," but mine was titled, "Hard as a cloud." I love playing with the metaphors.
Posted 1/29/2019 12:01 AM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday, Andrew. I hit the Big 70 on the 15th, was not all that sure that would happen 5 years ago this month. Glad we are both still here! Wine good. Steak good. Both better!
Posted 1/29/2019 6:05 AM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday, Andrew!
Posted 1/29/2019 9:53 AM (GMT -5)
BB - well, happy birthday to you and you'll be around for many more.
Subdenis - Thank you!
Posted 1/29/2019 10:19 AM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday youngster! I'll be 60 in May.
Posted 1/29/2019 10:29 AM (GMT -5)
Have a good one, Andrew..
Posted 1/29/2019 12:27 PM (GMT -5)
alephnull - thanks, let me know what 60 looks like. ;)
MG - thank you.
Posted 1/29/2019 12:54 PM (GMT -5)
We are all star dust so we are all old. Pray for Neal Degrasse Tyson.
Posted 1/29/2019 12:56 PM (GMT -5)
Great poem great meal you are gifted to feel the reality of life..

Happy Birthday
Posted 1/29/2019 1:23 PM (GMT -5)
Howard - somedays I feel older than others.
Appleseed - thanks.
Posted 1/29/2019 1:36 PM (GMT -5)
Howard said,

“We are all star dust so we are all old.”

So, in a sense, we’re all the same age. A great topic for another thread that’s currently active.
Posted 1/29/2019 1:54 PM (GMT -5)
You have found your voice...it only gets better from here...Biss...Andrews words encased in a tiny drop of dew...remain within
Posted 1/29/2019 2:53 PM (GMT -5)
Andrew,
First , Happy , Happy Birthday, young man!. I wholeheartedly agree with 81GyGuy, great poem, I am at that stage now at 63 ,thinking of old age.. physically, but not so much mentally...yet!

Yes and Steak good, wine better, and I can't resist at risk of being edited...Jack, ...YIKES... I think there be a bit jokester amongst us! Cuz I can't rip too much a guy who said I was like a heavenly angel or something like that!
Winger aka Dan in So Cal ...Rams will win!
.

Post Edited (Wings of Eagles) : 1/29/2019 3:30:13 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 1/29/2019 3:21 PM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday Andrew
Posted 1/29/2019 9:56 PM (GMT -5)
Happy bday. Do you haiku?

Five Nine In the Shop
Some of us remember not
Five Nine long ago.
Posted 1/30/2019 11:42 AM (GMT -5)
Happy Birthday! I share the last of the decade with you. By the way, it's all good.
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