POEMS FOR THE FINAL STAGE [F, 12-30-22]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter: POEMS FOR THE FINAL STAGE   [F, 12-30-22]

 

[As we move from one year to another, it seems appropriate to reflect on the final stage of all those years, so here are entries from various days of my poetry journal.]

OVERNIGHT DELIVERY

I got so very old

so very quickly

I blame Amazon

 

PRACTICALITY

If this is

the day I die

I don’t want

to be tired

so I’d better

take a nap

 

WINTER VISION

Being good at being old

means seeing the beauty

in bare limbs

  against gray skies

in the way grass hunches

  its shoulders up

  against cold rain

in memories of color

  as twilight darkens

 

LEARNING TO BE GOOD

I so much wanted

to be good at…

 

Tying my shoes so I wouldn’t trip

Subtracting nineteen from seventy-three

Reading faster than Jimmy or Carol

Knowing the words to Down in the Valley

Spelling amphibious as well as cat

 

Plowing a furrow straight and true

Hitting a pitch that curved

Changing the oil in a Chevrolet

Putting my arm around a girl

Writing one true word, and then another

 

Riding the circuit from church to church

Making them laugh, making them think

Three points, a poem, and benediction

Offering bread to eat and wine to drink

Life in joy with God and self

 

Listening with my heart for love

Balancing a baby on my knee

Being a friend to all who stumbled

Baptizing prisoners who yearn to be free

Storming the gates of injustice

 

Hearing the Word, saying the words

Leading the way to the promised land

Listening for bassoons in the silent night

Clarion call for the carnival band

Singing a marching song

 

Now I want to be good at being old

Slipping away so quietly

that folks must search the internet

to know on which side of eternity

I’m trying to learn to be good

 

John Robert McFarland