Poetry Corner
Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2015 9:05 pmI was feeling sad tonight and wrote this.....
Life’s Journey
Two times in his life, when a man learns to cry
The tears well up inside, not necessarily from the eye
One, is when he first hears his baby cry
Then the other, when it comes his turn to help his parents die
They come at different parts of life, separated by the years
But still tear at us with such strife, and bring about the tears
So sad that we have to have such pain for each of us to learn
So mad that that we forget too soon, indelible pain in our hearts do burn
We bump along life’s journey, as we move to take our turn
As son, as boy, as man, we grow to take a wife
As a husband, then as father, to bring another life
Then one day we stop, and see the life that has passed us by
In one direction we see our children as once we were, in the other our parents soon to die
We get no book, no manual or instructions to help with raising of the child
We do our best, impart our standards, steer their path away from becoming wild
Equally we get neither book nor instructions to help our parents in their later years
To take that journey with the ferryman, which we know will end in tears
After being the recipient of so much advice, sometimes welcomed, sometimes scared
We courage up to advise our mentor, in ways we once not dared
We wake up one morn, and realise that orphans we’ve been made
We move once more in life’s journey, and take places we cannot trade.
Our parents have gone, and at the celebration table where once they did sit
Now belongs to you and your good wife, who take your turns at being “it”
To let your children be the parents, the young adults you once were some time a go
As they take their own life’s journey, there’s so much more they need to know
Now you are bumped up to the head of the family, a role for which you did not train
And then you realise it is as your parents were, is what you’ve just became
So when this year when you gather round the table, to celebrate Christmas with your friends and family
Please remember Christmases past and present, and the future where you yourself will be your children’s memory.
(new edit)
Life’s Journey
Two times in his life, when a man learns to cry
The tears well up inside, not necessarily from the eye
One, is when he first hears his baby cry
Then the other, when it comes his turn to help his parents die
They come at different parts of life, separated by the years
But still tear at us with such strife, and bring about the tears
So sad that we have to have such pain for each of us to learn
So mad that that we forget too soon, indelible pain in our hearts do burn
We bump along life’s journey, as we move to take our turn
As son, as boy, as man, we grow to take a wife
As a husband, then as father, to bring another life
Then one day we stop, and see the life that has passed us by
In one direction we see our children as once we were, in the other our parents soon to die
We get no book, no manual or instructions to help with raising of the child
We do our best, impart our standards, steer their path away from becoming wild
Equally we get neither book nor instructions to help our parents in their later years
To take that journey with the ferryman, which we know will end in tears
After being the recipient of so much advice, sometimes welcomed, sometimes scared
We courage up to advise our mentor, in ways we once not dared
We wake up one morn, and realise that orphans we’ve been made
We move once more in life’s journey, and take places we cannot trade.
Our parents have gone, and at the celebration table where once they did sit
Now belongs to you and your good wife, who take your turns at being “it”
To let your children be the parents, the young adults you once were some time a go
As they take their own life’s journey, there’s so much more they need to know
Now you are bumped up to the head of the family, a role for which you did not train
And then you realise it is as your parents were, is what you’ve just became
So when this year when you gather round the table, to celebrate Christmas with your friends and family
Please remember Christmases past and present, and the future where you yourself will be your children’s memory.
(new edit)