"Amid willowy mists I stand
Waters beckon to fallen leaves,
Shadows dance on the lake"

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We live in a world that is too speeded up.

We need to slow down to the speed of life, as the title of a popular book suggests. We need to slow down to allow our souls to catch up to our bodies.

One way I do that is by writing poetry. In order to write poetry, we need to slow down long enough to catch...

Ah...as one gets older, one just, well, get older.

The body ain't what it used to be. Bones creak and shrink, muscles tire faster and develop "trigger points", etc., etc.

Three weeks ago, my wife's grand dad passed away. He was 97. Long life. Time to go. No big deal.

But then two days ago, my wife's third brother suffered a near-fatal stroke. He's still not out of it, even after surgery. Time will tell.

Myself, I became a pale, green-colored...

"Life is but a fleeting reflection on the mirror of existence,
Permanence exists not, and if your heart speaks otherwise,
It lies to you.

Impermanence is the essence of life, and this very truth sets us free. Life is precious, life is fleeting. Live well" A Fleeting Life

...but I am not without dignity. It may be shattered in some way, in tatters from the slings and arrows of (mis)fortune, but my dignity remains. I just need a listening ear and an understanding heart and a helping hand to help me keep it up"

That may very well be the cry of every homeless person in the world.

Hard as it is, the worst thing is not the being without a roof over one's head. It's the feeling of "shame", the loss of dignity that comes from feeling...

Erin Gruwell (played by Hilary Swank in the movie "Freedom Writers") said, "You know what's going to happen when you die? You're going to rot in the ground and people are going to forget you".

John Keating (Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society) said as much. "They are now fertilizing daffodils".

What's the point?

That time's a wastin', that time and tide waits for no man (now who said that, another dead poet?) and that what...