April 12, 2005
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“Decades”
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
6:17 a.m. PDT
The first decade
Awe inspiring
Waking to the cacophonous
music
of newborn phenomenons
The “firsts” of experience
Walking and talking,
Learning and yearning,
Eating a meal of instantaneous submersion
Attention to detailing the dance of wonder
Childlike babysteps of burgeoning attention
The second decade
Arriving at misbegoten conclusions
Fighting for a meager grasp
of parental freedom
Going one’s way
but having to bypass
the obstacles of derisive delusions
Playtime and pulchritude
Passive meanderings
Hormonal misunderstaning
And angsty anger appears
much too often
Graduation from childhood
The third decade
Arriving as an adult in society,
Learning too late
that the first two decades
should have been embraced
more resolutely while
they were happening.
Career minded cares
Love and affection,
Staking a claim for life
Bright skies and dark nights
Experimentation with fulsome fallacy
Marriage for some,
and then:
first decades to experience anew
Fourth decade
brings realizations almost too late
Foreign concepts of aging
and fickle fate
Arriving too soon
Then disappearing from view
For some the cycle
Understandable
And for some the
lessons don’t come
Fifth decade
Settling into consistency and boredom
Or implicitly creating one’s destiny
Awareness and instability
Errors and terrors of aging arrive
The mirror becomes
one’s worst enemy
And as cycles repeat
Time not only won’t stop
It quickens with a petulant laugh
The sixth decade
Memory replaces experience
Excitement sometimes evaporates
But small pleasures
Abound in the garden
Physical attraction
to self and others
doesn’t seem so important
Undone acts and unseen places
Unborne incomprehension
And nervous laughter at
mortality’s message
The seventh decade
Arriving for more and more
Never arriving for some
Contemplation
Eradication of the
memories so important
in the sixth
Elusive mind meanderings
Wisdom courses
through realization
Memory plays tricks
sometimes
The eighth decade and beyond
A journey about to end
Wrinkles on the hands
become the hills and valleys of our lives
stretching into infinity
with the mellow love of God’s
final solution
Behind the Poetry: I’m turning 52 in 19 days, (May 1) and this poem has been brewing for at least two weeks. It is unedited, and presented as it came out of my word processor this morning. I might change it, and I might not. Thought I’d post it here since it was only just completed. MFN 3/12/05)
Comments (11)
I’m still reading. The photo is not gone. I have to add you to my protected list.
Mike,
This is great … past … present … and future presented in words here. Can’t wait to see what image you come up with if indeed you do that.
Love & Friendship,
Liz
Mike,
This helped me regain some perspective I’ve been missing of late. I don’t know what you would change! Simply beautiful.
Stacey
Honestly I dont find food (first decade) a “meal of instantaneous submersion” until it is sunken into my stomach which takes time, though maybe it is subermersing.. and um…. i love poetry that twists me into a million directions and im not sarcastic and its great how it can make somethin as simple as food seem as deep as the ocean. “angsty anger” ! You have resonating word combinations! “Final solution” at the end has such a grave tone to it (earthshaking!) but it is a good defining ending. I’d like to twist that last part into the final solution of God is mellow love. Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate it.
M.A.
How wonderful! Thanks for sharing your poetry.
hey dogg, hit me back.
BTW: Nice poem. I write alot too. I dont put alot of it on the interweb cause its too personal but writing helps me vent the raw feelings ive had recently.
Mike,
Maybe it is because I just woke up from a nap, but looking at the picture you have here … I wonder why you picked women … just wondering …
Love & Friendship,
Liz
Great poem! I liked what you put for the fifth decade, which is what I’m immersed in: ‘Or implicitly creating one’s destiny’
:wave:Excellent poem, for me personally seeing each decade separated to a stanza would increase readability and follow the tone you have set of separating the decades.ryc: Thank you very much, not only for the recennt comment but all of your comments. I’m glad you feel you can see the world through my eyes, I hope you see the spark and soul that Stephen’s love has brought to it.
What a great movement through the decades! I, too, see my life ‘by decades’ now, so I really appreciated your perspective. And I like that photo too! xo