One Old Lady's Journey: Living, Loving and Growing Old

by Golda Martin

Overview

ABOUT THIS COLLECTION OF POETRY

 

These poems are a collection that were written over a thirty year period, they deal with childhood, depression, finding love, losing love, finding love again., then finely facing growing old, and death.

 

The seasons have often inspired the author, especially Spring and the rebirth of everything.

 

God has always been an important part of Golda’s life, without her belief in something greater than herself she would not have survived.

 

Some of the poems deal with the authors feeling of not exactly “fitting in” , not being accepted by the standards of the day.  Being on the outside looking in!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452012957
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	05/11/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	108
File size:	290 KB

Read an Excerpt

One Old Lady's Journey

Living, Loving and Growing Old

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By Golda Martin

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Golda Martin
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-1293-3

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Chapter One

THE ROAD OF LIFE

As I race down the road of life, sometimes not in complete control. I try to clear my mind of all but, the best things I have done.

The "sweet" side of me is the best, the "bad" the most fun. They are both are part of who I am, a complicated dame.

Recalling all of where I've been, and the things that I have done. Mostly makes me smile, remembering, remembering.

There's the men I've loved and left behind, along life's rocky path. There are the children, that I helped raise, jewels everyone.

All these things are part of what makes me, ME, and not some other bum. I sometimes contemplate what might have been, had I gone a different way.

As I race along the road of life, each and every day.

WHAT DO I PREFER?

I prefer blue I prefer books on tape I prefer not yelling at people I prefer Tide I prefer the moon and the stars I prefer dark clouds I prefer to drive in the daytime I prefer tall younger men I prefer blue eyes as mine are brown. I prefer sleeping bags to beds I prefer fast cars I prefer motorcycles to walking I prefer jeans and boots I prefer the way a man smells without cologne I prefer long red hair I prefer hiking to running I prefer Europe to the U.S. I prefer wine to coffee I prefer chocolate I prefer fantasy to reality I prefer my point of view I prefer honesty to dishonesty I prefer pick up trucks to cars I prefer truckers to politicians I prefer the name Golda I prefer to wake early I prefer Yahweh to God I prefer to laugh not cry I prefer red nails I prefer the change of seasons I prefer the innocence of childhood

WHY MOMMA WHY

Why momma why, Why do the birds fly in the sky? Why do the clouds go drifting by?

Why momma why? Why do the flowers bloom in the Spring? Why do the little birdies sing?

Why is it so dark at night and in the day so very bright? Why momma why?

Why are you so big and I'm so small, Why mommy why? I do not understand at all.

Child you must trust God has a plan. Sometimes it is not so clear to man. Now close your eyes and go to sleep. Some day the answers that you seek

Will be revealed to all!

MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

Happy faces of teddy bears, and Mother Goose Fading from my mind! Twinkling eyes of dear old Santa, dim as never before.

This means goodbye childhood. Goodbye scraped knees, tearful eyes. Farewell ragged baby blankets, and Winnie the Po.

Gone are the comforting rocking chair rides with mamma, and tearful swelled up eyes.

Gone are the crayoned etchings, round-tipped scissors, "cute" childhood verses. Forever lost in the back of my mind.

This means goodbye childhood. Goodbye, though it pains my heart. And, goodbye morning cartoons, which I hate the most to part.

THE BOOK

There was a book, a very special book hidden away with the rest of the books on the shelf. There were mysteries, and histories, and cooking books too. The very special book was brown, a circle of angels on the front.

It was a book of poems my mother read to me when I was a child. I no longer remember the words she read I will always remember she read them to me, as I sat by her side. They were poems all about angels

Every night the book came out, as I sat there, she would read. All about angels high in the sky. "Some day" she would say, we will all be angels flying on high.

"Momma's got to go to work now, I can't be late, let me tuck you in, give me a kiss, now, hug me tight. I love you honey, don't forget." Then she would turn off the light.

I know mother's an angel now, keeping watch over me as I sometimes stumble and fall. Someday soon I'll be up there too, sitting by her side.

Perhaps I will read to her from a book. Making up for the times I wasn't there, when she needed me most of all.

MY FIRST KISS?

Do you mean the first one that meant "all that" to me? The one that made my body know I was a woman?

Or the first one my mother planted on my cheek? The one grandma gave me as she sent me off to school?

The one that dear ole dad never did bestow? Or the one that led to my emotional ruin?

The one that made my body come alive? The practice kiss all girls give each other?

The one that held the message, "I love you"? Which one should I call FIRST?

The kiss I gave back is all that matters. The kiss that sent the message I was his and his alone.

That is the one that changed my life forever. That is the kiss I prefer to call the first one.

None of the others matter, don't you see. That kiss that I returned is what matters most to me.

FIRST KISS

Shall we speak of how it happened to occur? Or where we were? Was it Jupiter or Mars?

Every kiss before that VERY one no longer held a meaning. It wasn't that my lips had never touched another's

It wasn't that my body had never burned with hot desire. It was that my heart had never really opened to another's.

My mind would not allow my heart, for fear of being broken.

His lips touched mine and then I knew, NEVER, had I been kissed before. My heart, my body, my very being, were no longer mine.

It was my beginning, ending, my everything. A kiss defying space and time!

Never will another kiss make me feel the same. Was not Jupiter, was not Mars, we alone were walking amongst the stars

In a galaxy as yet unnamed!

PICTURES

She drew pictures for me, of beautiful faces. She gave them lovely full lips luxurious dark hair.

I always asked her, "Will I look like that when I grow up mamma? "You will look the way you were meant to look child," she would softly say.

Hurry along now, go out and play, we'll draw more pictures another day. Have fun now, mind your granny, Momma's working again today.

WHO AM I?

I've never really quite fit in, any place I've been I find myself wondering, wondering, where is my place in life?

Is it to just pass thru this place, from morning until night? Or is there some greater purpose I'm expected to fulfill.

Is there a bed of roses awaiting my repose, are there people clamoring to hear my every word?

Or am I only meant to be a creature of delight?

LOOK MY WAY

As I stand upon the stage of life, exposed to good and evil. Will I choose the door that is the proper one for me?

How will I know if I have chosen a path that I can walk? I sit in silence contemplating afraid to breathe or move.

As I traverse the pathways of life and time right now Will You hold out your hand to help me walk along this way?

Or will You pass me by, and notice not my plight?

I am here and now, a child you've brought into this world, please just look this way.

Notice me, hold out Your hand, I'm waiting for Your touch. I need your help to make that choice I can not do it alone.

HAPPINESS TO SHARE

Life is an adventure to be had each and every day. Around every corner in this life we are given to enjoy.

Celebrate, laugh, dance and sing. Release the child inside you. Listen to that tiny voice, so easy to ignore.

Celebrate this life He has granted to you, laugh and smile, weep tears of joy Hold out your hand to others, invite them to join in..

Happiness is meant to be shared, not held inside alone. The brotherhood of man is real, all of us are one.

Together we can make it thru all life's ups and downs. All belong to this world of joy and hope. We need each other, yes we do, we can't do life alone.

FRIENDS

For one fleeting second in our life, in our time.

Friends come together who are of like mind.

Then that second is past, but still locked in our hearts.

They are there forever, nothing is lost.

Friends will be in our thoughts

For as long as one is alive.

JUST A POEM

Love, life, which is most precious?

Both, without love, no life. Without life, no love.

Life, love, both are precious, Life IS love, and love is life.

THE BOOTS

What am I going to do when the boots die?? The boots that have gotten me thru all these many years.

These boots I have upon my feet have seen much more than me. They came from Texas so it says on the bottom of the sole.

Who touched them before they reached my hands? They have danced the polka, & line dancing all in time.

Now they are showing signs of wear, the leather it is cracked. Will I be able to toss them aside as if they are just nothing?

Will I be able to bid them farewell without a single tear?

They are like an old friend who is dying ... Someone else will have to do the deed, they are my oldest friend.

They have walked the boardwalk, and flown the mighty seas. They been in many countries while snug upon my feet.

No, I will not say goodbye, I'll bronze them, so they will live forever just like me.

LATE AT NIGHT

Late at night, when the lights are out ... When the house is quiet and all are asleep, the child in me comes out to play ...

When no one watches, I dance around the room, click my heels to long forgotten tunes

I smile and giggle, remembering times long ago. To stolen moments in my memory

I smile all over to long lost loves, to the fun I had in my misspent youth. What would we do without our memories?

Life's so grand, and is over too soon. so come on now, you dance with me, We're ALL children under the moon!

MEMORIES

I fell in love the other day, when no one else was watcin' There I was just goin' along like I always do, happy and smiling and saying how do u do.

And there he was, just standin' there mindin' his P's & Q's Hit me like a big brick wall, how sweet he was and all.

He smiled at me and I smiled back. Hello. says me to he. Hello says he, and, how do you do. I do quite well, thank u sir says me.

What brings you this way, I softly ask, afraid of his reply.

Don't rightly know just why, says he I've traveled down this road Something told me to come this way, Don't rightly know just what.

Well come sit a spell with me, says I, would you like some tea?

Tea? Hum, now that sounds fine, guess I could take the time, no ones waitin' up for me.

So, we sat, and talked, we sit there still, but only in my memory

DREAMER

Would you be a dreamer and drift amongst the clouds? Could you just imagine the things that you could do? Climb the highest mountain, swim the deepest sea! We ALL have that power to dream the perfect life.

If you can dream it, you can do it, you've heard that line before, in that magic place, that place within your head ... That place where castles still exist, your dreams can make it real.

Some take those dreams, and make them real, they turn their lives around. Some have FORGOTTEN the power of those dreams, without them MOST are lost. Remove the word IMPOSSIBLE from your dreamers mind. If you can dream it you can do it.

Listen to that Voice within. Don't be afraid to give your dreams a chance, if you can dream it, you can do it, listen to that voice within. That VOICE is telling you, it's you that have the power. He is here just watching you, He is that voice within your head.

If you can dream it you can do it, believe it, IT IS TRUE. You're the one who has the power to make your dreams come true. If you are content to just dream dreams to never take that step, then dream away my lovely one, don't reach up for the stars.

The dreamer that is in you will make your life complete. If you can dream it you can do it, you must simply just BELIEVE.

WHAT IF?

What if life is all a dream, What if none of this is real? What if we were really someplace else, a reality as yet unknown?

What if we look outside one day, and everything is gone? What if everything we needed, we needed not at all? What if we notice other people, weeping in despair?

What if we stopped and listened to their tale of woe? What if just one time in life, we realized a truth?

What if one day we felt another's misery and pain? Would we understand the meaning of what it is to BE?

Or would we still go on in life with our blinders on?

ENCHANTED COTTAGE

In the enchanted cottage where lovers never age, you gaze deeply into your lovers eyes, you do not see the wrinkles, the ravages of time. You only see the love you knew when you were both so young.

You see the one you love as they were so long ago your hands touch in love and warmth, True love sees not the flaws, true love has other eyes.

True love will hold your hand when everything seems lost.

Many never find true love, for those who do, rejoice, you are the lucky ones. You will go happily into the night

WINTER

Diamonds fell from the sky last night while the city slept. When we woke the earth had turned from green to shinny white. It was so bright it hurt my eyes, when I peered out the door

Get out the sleds, hurry now before it goes away. Do bundle up, put on those boots, diamonds are cold they say.

My friends and I climbed up the hill, ready for what waited Down we came on our magic rides, without a worry or care.

Close your eyes, go back in time, do you remember dear? Life was so simple way back then, we really had no fear.

Remembering the things we did, will keep us young at heart. Try to remember the diamonds the pearls, the magic carpet rides

Forget the hardships, forget the pains, you can not go back and change Live in the good moments, that's all that counts, in the scheme of things.

MOTHERS ADVICE.

So, do you want to be needed, or wanted. Make your mind up now, girl. If you want to be both to him, then this is what you must do.

Be his cook, be his whore, be his only true love. Raise the children, clean the house, you gotta' do it all.

If you fall down, aren't there for him,, he will surely stray. Make up your mind now girl, tomorrow is too late.

If I could give you my advice, it would be just this,..... Being WANTED is more important in the longer haul.

He will always need you, to hold his hand when his hair turns grey. If he WANTED you all along, you WILL hold his hand THAT DAY.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from One Old Lady's Journey by Golda Martin Copyright © 2010 by Golda Martin. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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