When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be

    Thus begins a John Keats sonnet which, sadly, was not published until 30 years after he had “ceased to be”. As far as the “fearing” is concerned — why fear? It’s going to happen! So observes Millay in her Dirge Without Music, “I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind”.

    This unavoidable awareness is what fuels my resonance with Frank Sinatra’s songs. They are, without being maudlin, so much in touch with reality.

        “Ah, yes. Fifty. September. Father Time with a frost warning.
        My leaves are turning. How green they were.
        And how bright they are. And, Oh, how wonderful my love affair
        with life.”
                — spoken intro to September of my Years

        “But now the days are short
        I'm in the autumn of the year”
                — from It Was a Very Good Year

        “And now, the end is near
        And so I face the final curtain…”
        “I've lived a life that's full
        I traveled each and ev'ry highway”
                — from My Way

Ode To An Old Man

Even with awareness of inexorable age

And without casting doubts upon your ability,

A woman one half your age you’re pursuing?

Seems surely a sign you’ve reached the last page

Of a wishful thinking senility.

Are you sure you know what you’re doing?

In answer to the wag who wrote, Ode to an Old Man, Frank did it his way. I’m doing it my way. I may not know what I’m doing but the possibility thinking is exhilarating! Oh, how wonderful my love affair with life.

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