Use it or you’ll lose it

How do you practice self-care?

It’s ’use it or you’ll lose it‘

When you get to seventy two

Staying fit and active

Is what I try to do.

There’s little doubt I’m slower

But no way I’ll give in

It’s hard work plus rest

That gives results

So that’s what I’ll still do.

Exercise breaks down tissue

It builds back while you rest

Our bodies adapt to what we ask

So you have to keep pushing – do!

If you think all that’s left

Is to sit on the couch

And count down the days

Till you die.

You body adapts

And as you might guess

It’s life on the sofa for you.

That’s below the belt

How do you waste the most time every day?

That’s below the belt

Don’t really want to say!

Had a row got proper told off

For using my phone all day!

A slice of German sausage

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

A slice of German sausage

The rind against my tongue

Or a bite of juicy melon

Mediterranean sun.

Tastes and smells that

Take me back

To where we lived when young.

The queue in a German butcher

Unfamiliar smells

A babble of foreign voices

A language we didn’t know.

They’d thinly slice a sausage

To give to us as kids

And to taste it now

Feel the rind on my tongue

Is to go back right away.

But melon takes me to Cyprus

Years we spent in the sun

The juicy blood run melons

We’d eat most every day.

Then I found them boring

Would have preferred a pud

But the taste of a melon

Takes me right back

To the years we spent in the sun.

A great writer who inspired Gandhi and many others…

Who is your favourite historical figure?

I‘m a huge admirer of Tolstoy

The author of War and Peace

Not just for his powerful writing

A fascinating man.

Born to privilege and to wealth

He turned his back on both

Champion of the poor man and the lowly serf

In the end he left it all and simply walked away

A soldier who saw service

And fought in bloody wars

Became a radical Christian

And champion of peace.

Rejected both the church and state

A Christian anarchist

Assumed as others somehow don’t

That Christ said what he meant.

He wouldn’t judge another

Or turn his hand to war

Took for inspiration

The Sermon on the Mount.

He corresponded with Gandhi

They say he influenced him

The principle of Ahimsa

The Kingdom of God Within.

Tongue tied, hopeless, utterly shy.

Write about your first crush.

Tongue tied, hopeless, utterly shy

Please look away from me as a boy.

Too timid by far to talk to a girl.

But yes it could happen.

I did have a crush.

But that would be daydreams

Doodling a name

Carving initials onto my arm.

Seldom encountered

Seen from afar

A made up person

Not the real girl.

Perhaps one encounter

It didn’t go well.

And that’s all I’m saying.

There’s nothing to tell.

Been to forty four countries – hope to visit more.

What countries do you want to visit?

I‘ve been to forty four countries

Lived in quite a few

I‘ve been to forty four countries

I hope to visit more.

South America next on our list

And cruise to Antarctica too

Argentina, Chile, Uraguay

The Falkland Islands as well.

Off to see the penguins,

glaciers and sea

That’s a new experience

Even for travelled me.

Eighteen four times over

I’m eighteen four times over

Or is it seventy two?

Birthdays? 

There’ve been too many

And yet I still want more.

I don’t mind getting older

The worst thing’s when you stop

Just try to stay fit and healthy

And make the most of life.

You have to keep on pushing

And not accept decline

I won’t give in too quickly

There’s life to be lived yet.

I’m my biggest critic

What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

I’m my biggest critic

It’s how I like to be

It’s hard to see the good in myself.

That’s for others to see.

People say I put myself down

So this is hard for me.

I’’m apt to say,

‘It can’t be done’

But push on till I do.

I guess I am persistent

Press on with what I do

But as to other qualities

I’ll leave them up to you.

Happily Retired and making the most of it.

How do you want to retire?

Happily retired six years

And really can’t complain

I have a decent pension

And happily good health.

No one tells me where to be

Or what I have to do

I’m not stuck in an office

Or pale behind a desk.

More likely in the garden

Or growing our own food

We have a big allotment

Plenty of fruit and veg.

Or else I’ll be out running

Four, five times a week

Love the weekly ParkRun

Target times to beat.

And then there’s foreign travel

So much left to see:

India, Caribbean, cruising round the Med

Australia and the USA, New Zealand and the rest.

And then there’s friends and grandkids

Food and drink and walks.

It’s a full life in retirement

So much to see and do.

Second Wind

Oh God he’s writing poems!
He’s off and writing again.

We knew it was bound to happen

But didn’t know just when?

We know where this is going.

If only we’d been warned!

He won’t pause for reflection.

He’ll just keep banging on!