The Difference As I Grow Old

I used to look at others and wonder,
'What is it like to be different?'
Now I know that I am they,
and they are me,  and the resultant we
are all just huddled here
around the fire, watching, silent,
content for just a moment
that the race of life has slowed.

Who would have thought
just a campfire
could do all that?
     ~

Reviews

[charlie]

The primal force of campfire grips even children with its cornerstone beauty. (And as your poem insinuates, people grow a little and kick away from the charity of warmth - gone out into the night collecting wood: one can only hope...and then, god willing, return.)

We are a flash in the pan, yet a campfire has always been. I think on enigmatic ancestors, and their shadows point to prospects of light, prophecy, and forecasts, and descendants and heartwood in flames.
Pictorials deep in a grotto. A cooperative pulling logs through sand. Light for a compass.

[Dean]

Thanks, Charlie. A most thoughtful reading. Now, what can you tear apart?

[Kelly Scheppers]

When I was younger, I never looked ahead. I simply took one day at a time, and made the most of it. Now that I'm older, I do just the opposite. I'm always looking ahead, second guessing myself, and strategizing. I believe it comes down to our own mortality. When you're in your twenties, you never think about growing old. Why should you, you're invincible then. But once you hit forty, life takes on a new perspective. Your kids are older and you're remembering when you were their age.

I like your analogy of the campfire, of us being huddled together, content that the race has slowed. Neither of my parents lived long enough to see old age, but both my grandparents did, and I feel their fruition must live on within me.

Thank you for this most introspective reading, Dean!


My best,
Kelly

[Gee]

Really like this Dean,we go through early life always thinking 10 years older is ancient and then suddenly,policeman are children in our eyes!It's then time to kick back,worry less and savour life,because we realise just how fleeting our time on earth is.

[Dean]

Thank you so much

[Gee]

You are welcome

[B.J]

So true, the race of life slowing.. I like thinking like that.

[Dean]

I hope so. thanks.
-Dean

[B.J]

your welcome

[Eagergreen]

A basic need of survival is quite a binding thing however my true intrest in the gathering together is how they gather those who hang back, those who get closer, and the racial and gender grouping

[Marie]

Because we come from the same place, created by the same Power...

Bricke make many different structues, but theyre still just bricks.