What is your mission?
Right now I’m missing a mission
I missed when they handed them out.
My mission is missing in action
I’m just kind of messing about.
A mission I’d just like to mention
Is not much what I’m all about.
I‘m not much a mission person
I‘ve yet to work my mission out.
The young are all very serious
They seem to have missions and plans.
But I am missing a mission
I guess mine’s to be an old man.
Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
No special thing that springs to mind
There were too many left behind.
Yet another packing case
Another move, another place.
As army brats we just moved on.
Never any place for long.
We couldn’t take it all with us.
Just move on. Try not to fuss.
So hard decisions. Sometimes tears.
We’d stay one place at most three years.
Precious things we’d give away
Leave them for some other boy.
So all I’ve left is wanderlust.
There’s no one home for such as us.
And so today we’re in Chile.
Life’s not so bad. What can I say?
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
Well, you can tell by the way I use my blog
I’m an older man, no time to talk
Speak to me loud, keep me warm, I’ve been around
I’m fifties born
And now I’m alright, it’s okay
But maybe look the other way
Or if you can try to understand
How seven decades affect a man.
Whether you’re older or whether you’re younger
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Feel the body breakin’ and maybe it’s a shakin’
But you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive
Oh, can you walk?
Well now, I get low and I get high
And if I can’t get either, I really try
Got troublesome feet need comfy shoes
I’m an older man and I just can’t lose
You know it’s alright, it’s okay
I’‘ve lived to see another day
Or ask again if you understand
How seven decades affect a man.
Whether you’re older or whether you’re younger
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Feel the body breakin’ and everything a shakin‘’
But we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive (oh)
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive (oh)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive
Well, you can tell by the way I use my blog
I’m an older man, no time to talk
Speak up loud and keep me warm
I’ve been kicked around since I was born
And now it’s all right, it’s okay
And you may look the other way
Perhaps by now you understand
How seven decades affect a man?
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive
Whether you’re older or whether you’re younger
I’m stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Feel the body breakin’ and everything a shakin’
And we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive (hey)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah (ah, ah, ah)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah (ah, ah, ah, ay)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah (oh)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive
From an original song by the Bee Gees – a band from way back then. I‘m blessed with good health and looking forward, God willing, to a good few years beyond the three score and ten I‘ve already had. Wishing each and everyone reading this an equally long and healthy ‘health span’.
What could you do differently?
Today I can write differently
We’re literally at sea;
I’ll try for better poetry
Spend a little time.
I tell myself repeatedly
Not to write so rapidly
Jotting thoughts down randomly
With here and there a rhyme.
It changes things appreciably
Approaching them quite differently
As hopefully you’ll clearly see
When I just take more time.
Today I‘ll write more carefully
Organise more thoughtfully,
Use a structure that’s less free;
Has more consistent rhyme.
So today we‘re all at sea
And there is more time for me
I didn’t write so hurriedly
I tried to take my time.
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
Billboard on a Freeway?
The premise won’t translate.
Advertising hoardings
Are banned on motorways.
In the U.K. they’re illegal
On busy motorways.
We just like our drivers
To focus on the road.
So I’ve a ‘Freeway Billboard’
I guess it’s U.S.A?
My message to Americans,
‘Have you picked the right road?’
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
Day Two in Santiago
Another busy day.
I’m bound up in the present
So hope this is ok?
I don’t dwell much upon the past
Or think too far ahead
I’ve sufficient on my plate
Dealing with today.
Here’s some words I did before
I hope they‘ll do today?
I had to drag them from the past
But hope they‘ll be o.k?
The past is past, it’s gone it’s flown.
No point dwelling on regret;
It won’t come back.
The chance’s blown.
For all we sit and sigh and groan.
However much we sit and fret.
The past is past, it’s gone it’s flown.
The things back then we wished we’d known.
Lessons we learned we won’t forget.
It won’t come back the chance’s blown.
There may be chances to atone
A different option, better bet.
The past is past, it’s gone, its flown.
We learned the lessons we have grown
The future hasn’t happened yet
There’ll be new chances not yet blown.
Let go the past, though don’t forget
We’ll grasp the future not yet met.
The past is past, it’s gone it’s flown
The future we will make our own.
What is the greatest gift someone could give you?
In Santiago Chile
We just got here today
Two hours flying to Madrid
And thirteen hours from there.
I should have been reflecting
But there’s so much to take in
I’m such a lucky person
To be where I have been.
And now you’ve caught me on the hop
Not knowing what to say
What more is there to ask for
When I have the life I have?
The thing that I’m most lacking
I fear’s not in your gift
If only I were competent
And deserved the life I live.
Instead I bumble through in life
Make the most awful gaffes
Can you help me get a grip
That’s the gift I need.
What colleges have you attended?
This really is a boring prompt
The very worst of all!
How to make that interesting?
I really do despair!
I’ve got better things to do
A really busy day
I cannot see the point of this
So bidding you adieu.
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
Do I play in my daily life
You have to bet I do.
If there isn’t time to play
Then what is our life for?
It’s work that makes the world go round
There’s stuff we have to do
But once essentials have been done
There should be time for you.
I’m retired don’t have to work
I still have household chores
But once they’re done
My time is mine.
There should be time to play.
My wife would say
I play too much
And leave too much to her
But I don’t always see the point
There’s no inspector calls.
There’s not much time to play today
I nearly messed my streak.
I had to put my toys away
And get on with real life.
Another day there’s fantasy
The Fantasy Premier League
Or running round the morning streets
Like some demented kid.
What to me says ‘playtime’
Is any time I’m free .
You never get too old to play
You grow old if you don’t.
What are your biggest challenges?
So what will be the challenges
I face in the New Year?
First up there’s accepting
That I need to change at all.
You get to be a certain age
You get stuck in your ways.
I know I’m less than perfect
But I’ve always been this way.
You can just give up trying
Accept things as they are.
Must there always be a challenge?
Do we need to raise the bar?
Too often I’m a passenger
I do not pull my weight
I don’t initiate or plan that much
I more just tag along.
I’m very bad at friendship
I fail to keep in touch
If others made no effort
I’d not go out that much.
I’d not say that I’m lazy
I do my share of work
But mostly stuff that interests me
And other stuff I’ll shirk.
I’m loving my retirement
And time to call my own
But do I have a purpose?
I’d have to say I don’t.
So time for reappraisal
To think through what I’m for.
There won’t be changes quickly
But I’ll let you know the score.
Andrew Green's Poems 