I’ve outlived many beliefs
and though they’ve passed
I’m still here
with more than a few skins
shed behind me.
Slow of step, creaking to arise,
I call to my ancestors
to guide me on the old road,
play the ancient drum
and stomp across the heavens
so I will hear and know
how to walk these miles
and behave like a man.
Very fine, Don. Yes, and the world needs the ancient drum, and mature, strong men to play it now. Thank you.
Words evoking a chill; like hearing the drum of tribal home.
Beautiful, Don. Thank you. Manhood is a work in progress, isn’t it?
May there be new and old support for each new step you are taking.
Such a heartbeat to follow – always true
Man, you sound reallly old! But poet personas can be any age, and this guy is convincingly rooted in the deepest age…bravo!
Said like a true Bard who played and sang to the drum beat. Nowadays, that beat is within and listening is to the silence.
Just turning 77, I appreciate your sensitivity to this life transition. Thanks 🙂
Don, that is musical, beautiful, profound, touching, sad, glad…most of all it is a ‘gift’. Thank you.
We ARE all a work in progress, and shedding those beliefs is important in lightening the load to “stomp across the heavens.”
Very powerful Don……skin and stones……
Really beautiful
Thanks Don, I love how your words evoke in me the same journey, letting go and letting go, to awaken to that which lies deep within.
I felt your spirit arising from that ancient stone circle in your words and ancestors calling us and always guiding us.
WOW! Thank you Don.
Very moving Don and rings true deep in my bones.
There is a nice deep rhythm to this poem . . . as a man . . . I love this walk of life.
an ancient beat, in the stillness between the void and seeing — a man is loyal if nothing else
Wonderful Don – very dear into my heart this resonating drum.
I am reading from the lost teachings of Atlantis, scroll documents kept for ageless guidance in a Tibetan monastery. It is playing a particular drumbeat for me. Amidst my circle of stones is a boulder etched with “Universal Consciousness” and “Unselfish Loving.”
We are of the age we are–somewhat factually so. Old for some, Not old for others. Thank you, Don.
Beloved Don, What a beautiful poem! Thank you! At 88 years and blessing a heart valve replacement surgery, I find myself in a different space than many! And that is perfect for now. I do not hear drums nor am I aware of my ancestors I am in a space/time that is demanding a deeper, truer understanding and manifesting of Unconditional Love with compassion. I do not know what the form will be. As I ask, what now, LIFE? I keep hearing, “It doth not yet appear what you shall be!!! Some how I sense that the Hippy Movement, the LOVE Movement, the ones who embodied that movement are in a holding pattern in this evoluntionary great change. I do not know as much as I thought I did in the past, but I am so grateful to be in the Parade with all of you. So I hold each of you in my unconditional Love (in its present state) and hold our Humaness with Compassion.
Soothing and stimulating simultaneously (uuuu – how’s that alliteration?!) Love the connection between playing the ancient drum, stomping across the heavens, and behaving like a man….