When One Has Reached the Age of Eighty-Five

Alpha List Number Poems Villanelles About This Site Poems for Free Copyright by Nicholas Gordon

When one has reached the age of eighty-five, And years, like mountains crossed, are soft with haze, It is a triumph simply to survive. One is where few have managed to arrive, Where consciousness alone is cause for praise, When one has reached the age of eighty-five. And when one can do more than be alive, Can cope, can comprehend, can turn a phrase, It's still a triumph simply to survive, To breathe, to be satiate, to desire, to derive Solace from the lingering ends of days. When one has reached the age of eighty-five, And memories of infancy revive, And faces long forgotten meet one's gaze, It is a triumph simply to survive, To hold together this one world, to strive To keep what life inevitably betrays. When one has reached the age of eighty-five, It is a triumph simply to survive.