Old Age

Old Age

Alan Altany

A life-time in every second,
every second a life-line
to all beginnings & endings
during time’s habitual lunge,
as the creeping of old age
meets no logical resistance
except for mystical moments
of marriage between imagination
and a long-lasting cadence of hope
in the midst of miraculous memories.

A scarred drama of being old,
a regeneration always to behold
across luminous & liminal stages
among remnants of the moment,
a consecration of common time,
a remaining encounter with love
as dusk rolls in like a low cloud
along the near edge of winter;
a deepening secret from itself,
all old age has its own music.

---

Alan Altany
Poet

Alan Altany is a partially retired, septuagenarian college professor of religious studies and theology. He has been a factory worker, swineherd on a farm, hotel clerk, lawn maintenance worker, high school teacher, small magazine of poetry editor, director of religious education for churches, truck driver, novelist, among other things. In 2022, he published a book of poetry entitled A Beautiful Absurdity. You can find his work at alanaltany.com. 

Photography by Zhenyu Luo