Tanka prompt: dealing with the vicissitudes, the problems of life … how old would you feel if you didn’t know how old your are ?

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Kathabela Wilson wrote for the prompt:

We all know that life is challenging, changeable full of the unexpected and difficult. 

How do we deal with this? 

We’ve seen animals adapting to loss, and incapacity,

 and we all have such examples in our own lives and those we love. 

What are the ways of coping, confronting the natural and unnatural forces of life, 

the mishaps and the tragedies?

What have you observed,

 felt, what tangible examples

 of dealing with life’s challenges 

can you express in your tanka? 

How have you done this yourself? 

Sometimes we can help each other,

 but ultimately it is our own task and 

we are prey to the weaknesses of chemistry, 

environment and life itself.

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MY RESPONSE: (I am 70 as I write this)

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my mind says 

I’m in my twenties…

body says, “you wish’

mind says ok forty

body says get a walker

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I find it is true … what “elderly” people

told me when I worked in a nursing facility.

If they didn’t have what ever problem required

them to be in a nursing facility,

they felt usually in their 30’s mentally.

At 70, I find it difficult to believe that I cannot

do, have the stamina to do what I did when I was

in my twenties, thirties, even older.  

Siggi

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Posted by siggiofmaine in Memoir, Poetry, Tanka, Tanka Poets on Site: facebook, Where does inspiration come from; Tags: aging, how old would you feel if you didn't know how old your are ?, humor