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I Am ElderSpeak – A Poem

I 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 –8^th 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