This is a copy of an email sent to me by Jack Chambers. I thought it very poignant.
When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value
Later, when the nurses were going through his meagre possessions, They found this poem Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital
One nurse took her copy to Microsoft in Melbourne, and the old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem
And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet
Old Man
What do you see nurses? What do you see?
What are you thinking when looking at me?
A cranky old man, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice 'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse you're not looking at me
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will
I'm a small child of ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now a lover he'll meet
A groom soon at Twenty my heart gives a leap
Remembering, the vows that I promised to keep
At Twenty-Five, now I have young of my own
Who need me to guide And a secure happy home
A man of Thirty My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other With ties that should last
At Forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me to see I don't mourn
At Fifty, once more, Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children My loved one and me
Dark days are upon me My wife is now dead
I look at the future I shudder with dread
For my young are all rearing young of their own
And I think of the years And the love that I've known
I'm now an old man and nature is cruel
It's jest to make old age look like a fool
The body, it crumbles grace and vigour, depart
There is now a stone where I once had a heart
But inside this old carcass A young man still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells
I remember the joys I remember the pain
And I'm loving and living life over again
I think of the years all too few gone too fast
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last
So open your eyes, people open and see
Not a cranky old man Look closer see ME!!
WRITER UNKNOWNRemember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might pass by without looking at the young soul within
we will all, one day, be there, too!
