Impermanence, Acceptance.... Poem by Frank Bana

Of life, there is nothing lasting in flesh
Of the greatest passions, of childhood games
The energy, acuity in which we delighted
Yield to the years and abandon us.

What endures of our living is made from dreams
The human, inescapable need
To strive in moments both foolish and clear
To protect foundations that erode with time.

I will know dreams as energies leave me,
My daughter venturing to explore the world
My brother secure in the house he worked for
The birds flying north to Canada.

I'll dream in French and sing in Spanish
Read the psalms of David, one each day
With time on my hands to save the planet
To learn the names of colours and stars

To kneel to the Ancestors on Black Sea shores
The plains of Judea, villages of the Nile
The Great Rift Valley, the house on the foothills
With Dylan's trilogy and the song of La Mer.

In older age we cling to inspirations
While the golden youthful sands, the liquid love
That freshened our hands and fell from our fingers
Are captured only by memory and soul.

Nothing lasts in flesh, and this is our blessing:
Moments of transcendence, moments of escape.
Impermanence, our acceptance of it:
The aspects most beautiful of us.