"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter." ~ Mark Twain I first shared this lighthearted (if somewhat cavalier) quip from Mark Twain just over a year ago titled, Mind Over Matter. It seemed the obvious pull-title at the time, but I've wondered since if I was too glib, as if I were trying to one-up Samuel Clemens. [pullquote]Insurance reductions. Movie ticket ...
Midlife reality
Memento Mori by Billy Collins
It's time I return to the topic of memento mori, no? Billy Collins has [at least] twice taken up the "Memento Mori" title/topic. "There is no need for me to keep a skull on my desk, to stand with one foot up on the ruins of Rome, or wear a locket with the sliver of a saint’s bone. It is enough to realize that every common object in this sunny little room will outlive me– the carpet, ...
Deadbeat
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. And I the father, for this is no bastard child conceived in passing passion, born in shame, fostered abroad and shunned as a faceless stranger. I’ll claim the fruit of my own seed, nurture and protect it, essay to understand it, forgive it, liberate it and finally – I hope – celebrate it. I've been wrestling with this midlife ode/anti-ode for a ...
Roman Shades
"Why," I implore, "Must the curtains Fly at half mast?" "Because," she sighs, "They must. Or else The silk will crush." So I leave them, Droopy eyelids Veiling the view. (Source: "Roman Shades", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) ...
Laugh Wrinkle
“It’s a crack,” she says. “Not a wrinkle.” “Or both,” I say, gently moving her hand From my face. “Wrinkles are like cracks.” “But how could you crack your face?” “Laughing,” I say. “And smiling.” (Source: "Cracked", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) This was an amusing, real life exchange with one of my nieces that is sandwiched roughly mid-poem. It might be the best part. Perhaps the bread and ...
Real
Real. Seek it. Find it. Create it. Live it. Share it. ...