Nick's Poetry - Long Life

Nick's Poetry Corner

LONG LIFE

Today it is my birthday and I am eighty five,
And no one’s more surprised than me to find that I’m alive.
Now this has set me thinking as to just how this can be
When other, maybe better folk, don’t live as long as me.

I think I’ve found the answer, though some may disagree,
I think it’s love for others and other’s love for me.
This binds us all together, our family and our friends,
Into a sort of network whose limit never ends.

We learn love very early when safe in parent’s arms
And then we love them in return for keeping us from harm
Then perhaps we wed another, a husband or a wife
And science says that’s proven to give a longer life

So the network keeps on growing expanding year by year,
Until it holds within it all the folk that we hold dear.
It’s this great net of loving that keeps us here on earth.
And helps us how to understand what life is really worth.

Of course, we’re not all perfect sometimes the net will break
And we should haste to mend it,if only for our sake.
If you show others kindness, then kindness you will find,
Will come back to you twofold, and give you peace of mind.

And when the oldest network links just rust and slip away
Don’t sit in some dark graveyard in deep November grey.
Sit by a cosy fireside, deep in your favourite chair,
Pour yourself a glass of wine, you’ll find that they’re still there.