Poem, September 8

What is a life well-lived?
Can a short life measure compare
to a longer one?
What is more valuable, excitement and adventure
or longevity and consistency?
Do you prefer the idea of celebrating
your retirement or others celebrating
at your wake?
Do the dead enjoy memories of a life gone too soon
or of a long-lived life?

Poem, September 7

What will it mean
when I hold my first grandchild?

Will I finally be able to accept I am no longer young,
That my time to be an adult is overdue?

Will I reject the feelings of age, rebelling against societies (or my own)
expectations of what a GRANDPA must necessarily be?

Will I simply quit, for a moment at least, living in my head
and finally enjoy the simple pleasure of holding a new baby?

Poem, September 6

Game Day Ritual

Turn the channel to College Gameday
I need to see what They say about the Hogs.
I wait for the phone call from dad.
The ritual of the phone call every time they play

Except
He won't be calling anymore
That ritual died when he did.

Then
comes the text.
Are you ready for the game?
A new game day ritual starts with my daughter.

Poem, September 5

Nostalgia

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone meant
nothing to a teenager who had everything
and had lost so little

Amazing how the songs of youth
become the painful triggers of the old

You see, nostalgia isn't about recapturing joy of the past
it is instead a way to escape the painful
memories of the present

Poem, September 4

How much time should a teacher spend
Learning more about the content
Simply to keep alive the love
and excitement
Of learning more about the content?