Age has you feel
The consequence,
Of thinned conceal
By a starved brush,
Upon your person
Wants but to instil
A sense of rush,
The while reward
Be to lay shades,
In wisdom’s colours
On its aging canvas
Begs innate candour... Thus so you knowLife lends redress,To shadowed greysOf life’s excesses, Will shape in partWhat age expresses...Hence of bold linesCarved so by time, Some even apropos Meant not unkind, To one’s tableaux That age defines, While time directsYou suffer decline, Yet holds respect For the art of aging, Alas be man’s eschatology!
10 thoughts on ““ The Art of Aging ” – man’s eschatology –”
I especially appreciated the word “eschatology” which brings everything together, Jean-Jacques: last days, immortality, rebirth. I had goosebumps reading this poem.
Yes, Rebecca, save last days never did nor do they now play a role in my life. Thus for they have no more element of consciousness in my world, than the first days as, in too early to know and too late to care. Accordingly so, of aging for me is all about composing the in-between as a manner of aging, said for example, a nurchured grand wine, with all the care and knowledge that achieves the ultimate to make it so, producing a life rich in mind and application as one exerts to circumvent the obstacles to which i so indirectly .allude in this reflection. Amen ! wherever that came from …
Another exceptional poem that speaks truth and elicits so many emotions. In the photo of the young and older hands, I see myself both contentedly coexisting.
Yes, my thought as well, that the younger hand attached to the aging one was an encapsulating image of the poem, that of ” in one’s tableau, that one defines” as the aging of life we must all at some point experience. Thus if we live our every day’s now, the present years and those that follow will blend as a whole worthy of having been given that meagre slice of life!
My immediate thought on reading your poem is that age should be an art and not something that just happens to us. Very apros today on my 65th birthday.
Well, Liz, you read it right for any other way, is by extension ignoring the greatest gift we are given, that of life. For as you say it doesn’t just happen and to do honour to the giver, is to live life in time consciously aging in an artful manner, deservedly so!
It doesn’t hurt, may even be a good feeling, but you can always let me know.
And by the way, I do hope you are having a very Happy Birthday, with all the many years to follow you want to enjoy and for you to make happen!
Jean-Jacques Fournier
>
The art of aging “isn’t hard to master” ( nod to E. Bishop) for the master of this poem.
The mirror of words seems to keep him away from the curves of time.
I believe we humans are unconsciously programmed to be preoccupied with numbers. Life moves with time and how and what you do with it. It ought not be allowed to be guided by numbers, but rather the quality of what you allow your mind to manage and master. Thus so as to the level of quality you impose and allow to be imposed on your person. I realized many years ago the words of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, that said “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Hence to concentrate on living in the now without being preoccupied with the numbers attached to the years of my life, presently or to be, had no significance to the all important NOW. The first and only step that that truly matters in the art of aging!
Poetry on a canapé 
I especially appreciated the word “eschatology” which brings everything together, Jean-Jacques: last days, immortality, rebirth. I had goosebumps reading this poem.
Yes, Rebecca, save last days never did nor do they now play a role in my life. Thus for they have no more element of consciousness in my world, than the first days as, in too early to know and too late to care. Accordingly so, of aging for me is all about composing the in-between as a manner of aging, said for example, a nurchured grand wine, with all the care and knowledge that achieves the ultimate to make it so, producing a life rich in mind and application as one exerts to circumvent the obstacles to which i so indirectly .allude in this reflection. Amen ! wherever that came from …
Another exceptional poem that speaks truth and elicits so many emotions. In the photo of the young and older hands, I see myself both contentedly coexisting.
Yes, my thought as well, that the younger hand attached to the aging one was an encapsulating image of the poem, that of ” in one’s tableau, that one defines” as the aging of life we must all at some point experience. Thus if we live our every day’s now, the present years and those that follow will blend as a whole worthy of having been given that meagre slice of life!
My immediate thought on reading your poem is that age should be an art and not something that just happens to us. Very apros today on my 65th birthday.
Well, Liz, you read it right for any other way, is by extension ignoring the greatest gift we are given, that of life. For as you say it doesn’t just happen and to do honour to the giver, is to live life in time consciously aging in an artful manner, deservedly so!
Now, I’ll have to live the insight!
It doesn’t hurt, may even be a good feeling, but you can always let me know.
And by the way, I do hope you are having a very Happy Birthday, with all the many years to follow you want to enjoy and for you to make happen!
Jean-Jacques Fournier
>
The art of aging “isn’t hard to master” ( nod to E. Bishop) for the master of this poem.
The mirror of words seems to keep him away from the curves of time.
Effective and affecting poem.
I believe we humans are unconsciously programmed to be preoccupied with numbers. Life moves with time and how and what you do with it. It ought not be allowed to be guided by numbers, but rather the quality of what you allow your mind to manage and master. Thus so as to the level of quality you impose and allow to be imposed on your person. I realized many years ago the words of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, that said “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Hence to concentrate on living in the now without being preoccupied with the numbers attached to the years of my life, presently or to be, had no significance to the all important NOW. The first and only step that that truly matters in the art of aging!