aging & me

the other side of the mountain






the year turns--
I age--
and the best I fear can be is that I will plateau awhile
before slipping down surer & surer,
and I’ll hope that the slope of diminishment is gradual,
not
precip-
i-
tous,

and still I am driven to deny such a dusk is upon me,
I grant that disease and accident might well be ready to find me,
as each dark guide finds so many I know, so many I love,
I deny that dark guide its fulsome power over me now:
while my body, my tools, do follow that guide,
inside the resistance still thrives,
pattern after pattern seem clearer to me now,
and my hope is that the same years
that subtract physically
can also add mentally, psychically,

I hope for wisdom,
though I know to fear the senior moment ascendant,

my body heads over the hill,
while my soul glories
in what continues to be revealed
to my spirit through my heart,
my heart which still feels itself at the top of the mountain,
with revelation upon revelation
continuing to reveal itself
to the me I want to be.

by Henry Walker
September 27, ’10