~ ~
I’ve always known I’d never get
whatever it is I wanted.
No way, I’ve felt, do I deserve
my desires—I’m just not worthy.
Nevertheless, my life’s been good.
~
(Of course, I’ve never known just what
I’ve wanted until somebody
told me just what I ought to want,
good co-dependent that I am.
Nevertheless, my life’s been good.)
~
There’s so much that I’ve never done,
and much that I’ve done I failed at;
places I never went to, and
places I never really saw.
Nevertheless, my life’s been good.
~
Often, I’ve been a hollow man,
trying to stuff his emptiness
with all manner of addictions
(the list’s banal, embarrassing).
Nevertheless, my life’s been good.
~
The faces of the people that
I’ve ignored, hurt, disappointed,
abandoned, disdained, or abused
haunt me in the wee small hours.
Nevertheless, my life’s been good.
~
Now diminished by old age to
a funhouse mirror of myself,
I sense Death looking at his watch,
impatient, counting down the time.
Nevertheless, my life’s been good.
Through all of it, I have been loved.
~ ~
The Geriatric Pilgrim: Traveling the Landscape of Faith and Grief 
Richard, I don’t think I’ve read a poem that’s moved me more to rejoice in what I have, in the “nevertheless,” in the “but God” of Ephesians, in the humility of faith and the grace of of God. Each stroke of this poem resonates with me deeply. Thank you.
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Thank you! You’ve made my day.
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Oh yes! The life review of the last years. “To love someone else is easy, but to love what you are, the thing that is yourself, is just as if you were embracing a glowing, red-hot iron; it burns into you and that is very painful. Therefore, to love somebody else in the first place is always an escape which we all hope for, and we all enjoy it when we are capable of it. But in the long run, it comes back on us. You cannot stay away from yourself forever. You have to return, to come to that experiment, to know whether you really can love, that is the question-whether you can love yourself. That will be the test.” Carl Jung
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Exactly. Thnx for the Jung quote. I’d not read that before.
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This poem has a commonality that speaks to the hearts of anyone who has lived a generous number of years. It’s positivity is refreshing. Thank you, Richard! 🙂
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May we allow Him to show us the good we’ve done, too, as small as it often seemed to us.
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