these years together
your head on my shoulder rest
and your soulful smile
through fair and stormy weather
exalts us for all to come
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 23, 2021
photos by author
“Our 50 Years Together”
Autumn’s leaves aglow
suffusing the atmosphere
Amber’s healing light
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 21, 2021
poem: the elderly couple at the mall
the beaming elderly couple
urgently shuffle directly towards us
as we make our way through
the crowded mall
holding my wife’s hand,
she with her cane,
people jostling us
this way and that
me thinking:
do we know this couple,
what huge smiles they have,
hope they stay on their feet
the elderly man holding his wife’s tiny hand
looks at me with prophetic eyes
and declares “Never stop holding her hand”
to which I empathically reply, “Never!”
now, his words disconnected,
saying “Youngsters,” referring to us
and “Sixty-nine years” referring
to how long they have been married
and I reply “Fifty”
as we have just celebrated
our Golden Anniversary
a few days before
now two old couples beaming,
holding hands, knowing long life love filled,
shuffle off our separate ways
disappearing into the day’s babel
love is patient, love is kind,
it is not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude,
it rejoices in the truth; bears, believes, hopes,
and endures all things; love never ends
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 19, 2021
photo by jem vistaprint
“still in love”
Author’s note: The last stanza paraphrases
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, The Gift of Love.
releasing their light
tumbling down from the overstory
dark limbs on bare sky
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 16, 2021
photos by author
hearing her soft
murmuring
upstairs in bed
I leave my writing to check on her
she awakens
from her deep overnight sleep
with her first words to me,
‘I am here’
brushing her hair
putting on her robe
and house shoes
descending the stairs
she lies on the couch
facing the front window
with blankets piled high
while I finish my writing
after some time
I ask her,
“Are you ready for
breakfast”
she responding,
blissfully,
“No, I love the silence,
I love this place”
then, after breakfast,
she strolls through the house,
as if in some distant grand villa,
saying, “I love coming here”
morning, at home,
together, starting
another magical day
of demands and surprises
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 13, 2021
Author’s note: Some
reflections on caring for
a loved one with Alzheimers.
photos by author
Autumn’s morning glow
floods in the windows brightly
lighting up the gaps
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 12, 2021
photos by the author
Author’s note: The title of the
haiku is from a quote by Annie
Dillard in her book ‘A Pilgrim
at Tinker Creek.’
poem: a paean for senescence
our growing older
is not a linearity starting here, ending there,
not a timeline from beginning to end,
not a simple chronological
counting of the years
to be sure there
are circles, loops, and spirals,
bardos, gaps, and liminal spaces,
and ones functional/dysfunctional
life experiences
and of course
in our aging
one is vulnerable
to life’s foibles and frailties
which we must suffer
thus in our senescence
we prepare,
countering bitterness with beauty,
hopelessness with creative imagination,
infirmity with wholeness
embodying a faith that sustains us
for those unseen things yet to come
in our Cosmic journey home
in the truth of the Universal Oneing
of consciousness human and divine
being gentle with those things
unsettled in our heart and soul
knowing our cries, laments, and joys
are heard, and there is place of radical grace
and love that perennially longs for us
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 11, 2021
‘Spiral of Life’ art image by Susan Bruck
then preparing our breakfast and eating,
and now sitting in the blue velvet chair
together meeting every challenge,
now in the autumn of life, approaching
Herb Stone