GOLD: SLOWLY WITH THE SEA



Long leagues from senility,
Youth’s anguish left behind,
Lies a blissful, rich and golden stretch
To relish peace of mind.

To make a friend of everyday,
To sift the past with thought.
One well might wish for youth again
But wise the one who’d not.
-Roger White, “Wish”, The Language of There, p.14.


This golden state I entered,
it seems just the other day;
perhaps it was a year or two
when those old pains moved away.

Yes, I make a friend of every day,
after I’ve had morning tea
and sift the past so gently with
my present, future and ‘the me’.

Yes, the old anguish is left behind,
but sometimes new ones emerge
and I languish in familiar haunts
were joy and God converge.

However gold the state of grace,
however full of joy,
you can only go for just so long
before you’re kicked like some old toy.

Then you must assess the scene
with neither fight nor flight,
dig your heels in and think it out
and one day you might get it right.

And if you don’t,
‘cause some things you lose.
This life has no guarantees.
Radiant acquiesence comes slowly
with the sea, its waves a gentle ease.


Ron Price
10 July 1995