A Few Stray Poems
by Tom Woodard

On Turning Sixty

What is one supposed to feel, when he attains his sixtieth year?
What great gains in wisdom with his children he will share?
Has he learned ought from all, the life thus far he has lived?
What surrenders must he make, in accordance with perceptions,
Gained from observance of those who’ve gained it before him?

I will tell you what I do know, having reached that great plain,
Perhaps a little older, but feeling and thinking same as before,
Surrender? Not willingly, I’ll tell you - not without a struggle,
Will I retreat or take flight; slower, perhaps, but fighting on,
I’ll do that which I’ve wished, and wish still to accomplish here!

Wisdom gained? At first glance and on offhand consideration,
I would say little or none, but in that I would be sadly wrong,
For I’ve gained, almost unknowingly, wisdom to love those,
Whom the Lord has commanded me in His name to love, and
To take no offense, whether intended or no, at life’s little slights.

And, wisdom to abandon vanity and pride in accomplished self,
To allow the lines of age to show through, to accept mortality,
To find that precious life is precious indeed, and so very brief,
Therefore, to waste it not, but fill it with purposeful endeavor,
Making, hopefully, a difference in the lives of those who follow.

Above all, wisdom to know that one should seek to please only,
The audience of One - the Holy Father, the Lord God Jehovah,  
Eschewing popularity, or finding acceptance in the multitude,
But walking the path which God, through Christ, has set for us,
To witness in word, but much more so in wordless works of faith.