07 May 2013//in Stories /by Double NickelsI am ElderSpeak
by
Antoinette Ford
It seems that everyday now someone will ask me why I founded the Double Nickels? How do you create theatre from reminiscences? Or they will ask some version of a similar question. The answer for me is simple. I am sincerely passionate about wanting to know….period. It is the journey that I find so compelling and to understand what those that went before did, what they knew and experienced is what gives meaning to what I do now. When I listen deeply I learn that the simple things experienced by ordinary people are what make the world so rich. I feel compelled to say these things now because of words recently spoken to me…”the older I get, the more I realize how little I know”. And the more I realize I don’t know, the more I reach into the well of wisdom and words given to me by those that came before. So, I want to know them better. I wrote the following words when I was looking for myself a few years ago. I’m still finding pieces of the whole. I hope that’s because I am still growing.
I Am ElderSpeak
First born – Only Grand
First Grade —Only “A”s
First Grad –8th grade
High School
College Too
First Love – Only heartbreak
First to Leave Our home
First Sadness to this point
First Black, Only Woman
Ships and schools and careers
Only Marriage – 40 years
Only Child – again
This time – my child
A First daughter
Only Successes to this Point
And more — many, many more
And Then
First Loss, Only Fear
First Trial, Only Failure
No control – Must let go
First Insecurity – Run Away
STOP
START AGAIN
Reclaim Your Strength
Search for those anchors
Find Those Souls Who Gave
You Strength, Wisdom, Purpose
Where is your Passion and Perception?
Find your Persistence and regain focus
Now Share – Give Back.
What do you have that’s not yet been used?
How can lessons learned be spread?
All the Elders now are dead
You are ElderSpeak.
Console yourself, Reclaim your place
Embrace the New First borns
Remind the New Onlys that
Like the seasons – they too will come,
Grow, fade, die and come again.
I am ElderSpeak
My ‘cello sings
My voice resounds
My words define
My acting cries and dramatizes
Memories from a long past time
And all proclaim My Life.
Ambidextrous Mother
Beautiful, brilliant Grandmother
And yet another Perceptive and Persistent
Great –Grand,
I knew them all and well, for
I am Them All.
“Use all your talents” was their prod.
“Find them, let them define your life”.
“Nothing can stop you, but you must start”.
It does not matter when. Use all your talents
All your life”.
Late to come but found for sure
My Art is now My Life.
© 2010 Antoinette Ford
