Shades of Comic Genius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

[Update Nov 2, 2018: A reader wrote in to say I 'clearly have no idea about the physical issues that come with growing old.' Well, I will be 73 soon, have been living with prostate cancer for nearly eight years and have arthritis in both my neck and a leg injured in a bad fall in 2014 when I fractured my ankle and spent months learning to walk again. Yes, old age can be a nightmare, but - whatever our age and whatever we are up against - it's all about the human spirit...isn't it?] RNT

Growing old can bring all manner of health and other problems. Yet, most of us feel little different
within ourselves than we did as we passed through various stages of youth and middle age although (hopefully) more than a shade wiser.

Every now and then, it feels GOOD to defy the outward signs of age and let the inner self let its hair down…

Never let anyone tell you that old age is nothing but a killing field.

SHADES OF COMIC GENIUS
(For old[er] people everywhere)

We stripped naked under a leafy sky,
saw our bodies turn to gold,
for a while forgot about growing old

Rediscovering youth’s feisty passion,
we surfed its glorious tide,
put aches, pains and home truths aside

A balmy breeze gave us its blessing
and songbirds sang an amen
while halcyon days revisited us again

Though years pass and take their toll,
the spirit of adventure remains
to seize the day, throw off its chains

If love is the greatest adventure of all,
sex is but half the story,
a shared empathy, its power and glory

We dressed quickly, nature applauding
bodies frayed at the seams
acknowledging its comedy of dreams

[From: On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010.