William Carlos Williams wrote this poem to his mother when she was 73. It worked as a prescription to renewal. Drop into nature. His mother lived to 102.
I give you the poem so we all can renew.
To Waken An Old Lady
Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind -
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested,
the snow
is covered with broken
seedhusks
and the wind tempered
by a shrill
piping of plenty.
