Poetry – Wining to the End – a poem about experiencing life to the full and evaluating the worth.

It is good to reach an age when you can look back over a life and feel the wonder. There are many things that you might have done differently but then you would not have been where you are.

Experience gives you perspective and appreciation.

I have been fortunate to have lived through such times, times of peace, freedom and plenty, and to have found so much love and fulfilment.

There are not many times in history or places in the world that have offered such sanctuary, liberty and lack of mind control. It has enabled me to blossom.

There are many mountains I have not climbed and many more I hope to scale. I expect the views to be magnificent.

I hope my grandchildren will experience a world full of challenge but with opportunity and without the fetters that can narrow a young mind.

An imprisoned mind cannot savour the taste of such heady liquor as life brings.

Wining to the End

Last night I sat alone with my bottle of wine

And sipped the tiniest sip of the very last drops.

I swirled the red liquid around the bottom

And saw my reflection in the bottle.

I have loved the most beautiful women

Loved until nothing else mattered;

Wondered at the moon,

Fallen through the stars

Travelled to the worlds of new ideas,

And seen the best that men can do.

I have tried to make sense of galaxies and cathedrals,

Listened to men whose eyes glinted with passion

And experienced the greatest lusts.

I have read the most considered words

And wrestled with majestic ideas,

Found causes and ideals I would die for,

And seen the worst results

From men whose eyes were hard and selfish

Yet glowed with excitement.

I have considered heaven

And imagined hell,

The greatest minds

And the most depraved,

Drunk myself unconscious,

Opened my mind to wonder

Art, poems and stories,

Written, daubed and waffled.

I have despaired at fun

And empty lives

And sought meaning and fulfilment.

I discovered it in family, friends and sharing

And a thousand kind words.

I have travelled and marvelled

And taken so many sips and gulps

And now I am at peace savouring these

Last few,

For only in them is the flavour fully distilled.

 

Opher 24.3.01