Simply beautiful. No need to say more.

When we have lived a long life, and lived it well and plentiful, we are not as stressed about just being where we are, your poetry is always so humanistic and real, and the art you choose make the words come to life for me, I am beginning to appreciate your poetry more and more with each passing day :)

First, let me applaud you for continuing to carry on even though you've had to deal with the onslaught of that terrible virus for so long. I'm getting my booster very soon to avoid it like the plague. You haven't lost your talent with that telling illustration.

I don't feel like an old man, but I'm at that point in your poem. When I finish these last two books and get them published, I don't think I will write another. But I will continue to do my poem every week and stories and articles when I think of them. For my lifeblood is writing and I will continue to write until I can no longer do it, carrying on what flame I have left like you.

Ron

The words so well match the painting Diana Fantastic work!

His face, his hands and his expression say it all…
And it is enough…
You have captured so much within
this beautiful and emotional painting,
I feel only the minimum of words
are required…

Absolutely captivating Diana…

Diana (the other)
🍁

I am deeply moved by both your words and digital painting. After two years of experiencing several deaths in my family due to both age and Covid I find myself each night, head to pillow, with a swirl of thoughts and memories of aging, accomplishments and legacy nagging my sleepless mind. Your words give wisdom to the need of long needed pause for all of us at some point, and the virtue of embracing that pause. I appreciate your sharing your insightful and wise flame.

Wishing you returned health.

jeanne

What intrigues me with this lean piece of wordsmithing is the simple way you make the reader either look at himself or other senior people and question their motive in the continued quest for a long life. So many older men, and women, just don't want to die, rather than accept they may have reached the top of the summit and have earned the right to rest, reflect and know to live fully is to risk, and that the descent to the valley of one's beginning can be a rewarding contemplation unto itself. And, as you so adroitly point out, any "old man" that has done so much should embrace the rewards of "that was enough" not carry the heavy anxiety over doing more. Loved this short, concise, and motivating manifesto on living life to its fullest... and recognizing that fact.

These few words reconcile the painting well. The old man nearing the end of the road, vitiated, languishing, hindered arthritic fingers still attempting to lace together, (a metaphor perhaps for a time of wholeness long passed) but still at peace with all he'd done... Makes one think. Thanx. r