0062
By
Rajat Subhra Chatterjee
Let me respond to huge all round greetings and love showered on me for 11th October with a Big Thank You to all my dear grand children, children, brothers, sisters, friends and all near ones, which culminated with a Royal treat arranged by my Daughter-In-Law and my Son.
At this moment, however, my thoughts and my personal standing on life are flowing exactly the same way as expressed in words through the lines of the following poem by Ms. Patricia A Fleming. I have pleasure in sharing the same with all of you.
Patricia A. Fleming was raised in Trenton, NJ, in an Irish American family. After graduating from the College of New Jersey with a degree in Psychology, she pursued a career in social work with the mentally ill and was soon hired at that same psychiatric hospital when she turned 25. Thereafter she had been a psychiatric social worker for 36 more years and on retiring, began writing inspirational poems about life.
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The Poem :
Quote
“ I still Matter ”—By Patricia A Fleming.
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I am still here
My looks are nothing special
My face reveals my age
My body shows some ware and tear
And my energy not the same
Too often my memories fail me
And I loose things all the time
One minute I know what I plan to do
And the next it just slips my mind
I try hard to avoid my mirror
There are things that I would rather not see
And even those times when I just catch a glimpse
I can no longer recognize me
The things I used to do with ease
Can now cause aches and pains
And the quality of the things I do
Will never be quite the same.
I always compare my older self
To those younger versions of me
And I know I am wasting too much time
Missing who I used to be
But the things that really make me sad
Is despite what people see
Underneath my tattered, worn out shell
I am still the old same me
My heart can still feel endless love
And at time it still can ache
My heart can fill with so much joy
And then it can suddenly break
My soul can still feel sympathy
And longs for forgiveness and peace
And there are times its light shines
Boldly through
And at times it longs for release
It true, may be, now that I am older
Feeling lonely may be status quo
But it also has made me more willing
To forgive and let past conflicts go
So may be,
So may be to some I look ugly and old
A person who barely exits
I am still quite aware of the beauty inside
And my value should not be dismissed
So although not so strong and no beauty
Its true –
I am still here, and want so much to live
And I know that there is no one
In this world quite like me
And no one who has more to give back.
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To end this poem, I must quote what
Sofia Loren had said –
“ There is a fountain of youth . It is your mind.
Your talents, your creativity you bring to your
Life and the lives of the people you love.
When you learn to tap this source
You will truly have defeated age.
Unquote
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You My Dears still matter.
And I love you.
Concluded.
