From today’s ProJo and this will mean more to my many “older” friends ! December thoughts as 2014 fades away FRANK ROBINSON On the bus – reading about Basho’s travels on foot. Strangely, like Ulysses, I always thought that home was a place you could leave. Unlike most arrivals – the closer we get, the less clear, the more unknown. The amazing thing is not that we will die, but that we were alive. They’re so polite today – the perfect curve of the waves, the smooth sheet of foam. A hundred compromises accepted, but some turned out better than expected. When you’re young, you think you have choices. When you’re old, you think you chose. It’s so strange, to be so old and yet so strong, so strong and yet so old. Lying in bed, deciding to make the first decision of the day. Tired from doing too much, tired from doing too little, but grateful for having the choice. Which memories should I sort through today — what I did, or what I didn’t do? At my age, I should be thinking big thoughts, getting ready. The world is a patient teacher; you can fail as often as you like. When I drop the leash, she waits for me to pick it up. The leash means freedom. My body was once my slave, but now, rebellions are breaking out all over. I can’t quite give up the idea I might attract that pretty girl. I wish beauty were a kind of pill that I could take every day and never overdose. I put off the moment when I turn out the light and admit the day is over. How strange — the one thing that lonely people want is to be left alone. Beauty — so much is contained in the word, implied, regretted, hoped for. With my wife — watching the wind batter the trees. Frank Robinson is retired director of the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, former director of the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design and an art historian and poet. His end-of-the-year short poems are a tradition. Copyright © 2014. LMG Rhode Island Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. by going to bed at 10 and awakening refreshed in 2015 !
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 14:33:46 +0000
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