Living in the Later Years

As with many other women my age, I'm learning to what it is to experience life. And it is not a walk in the park. It's hard. It's very hard. Sometimes it's **** hard.

I find writing helps. If it helps others so be it.

Menopausal Hell

I am older, but not dead.

Images are black and white, not grey or colours.

I’m barren, without seeds.

I come to grips with life

as it is now

as I find it staring me in the face,

nose to nose.

Words offer no comfort – no warm shoulder to cry on,

no great big hug.

Looking back, my life was full;

my spirit flew freely among the elements.

Nothing is hidden now,

everything is front and centre,

exposed.

[copyright April 14, 2012]

Solving the World's Problems is Not My Job

Putting Undue Pressure on Myself

I cannot stop the killings in Syria

I cannot save the Irish economy

I cannot save the starving children in South Sudan

I cannot solve the BCTF contract dispute

I cannot fill Jack Layton’s shoes

I cannot turn back global warming

I cannot free the political prisoners in China

I cannot fill the European banks with gold

I cannot give every unemployed Canadian a job

I cannot fix the American health care system

I cannot live your life for you

I cannot find you a job

I cannot please everybody

I cannot live forever

I can point out injustice

I can seek the truth

I can name names

I can forgive

[copyright March 19-20, 2012]

How someone's job influences your muse

Without knowing it, someone has helped me out poetic slump. She may not be happy.

Religiously Free

For Anna

My cathedral is an open meadow;

Its roof is the crisp blue sky, its floor holds

Wild grasses, overgrown and baked by an August sun.

My clergy are grasshoppers and ants,

With cicada choirboys covering the silence

With everlasting joy.

My hymn is my own life,

Starting out quiet and slow,

Building gradually

Until I reach nirvana.

My god is my god,

Not your god,

Not your God.

My god cannot be shared,

For she is in me.

[copyright January 14, 2012]