Poem: Kept Secret

A message not to panic, that life gets easier as the years go by.

Kept Secret

A secret I’m keeping
from all my young friends
Something in which they’d find
damn little comfort,
so sure that life is slipping
underfoot like sand
It keeps getting so much better
all along the way

Not the teachings of experience,
but more common stuff
Friendships deepened,
not so badly cut by rivalry,
the warmth that comes
from fires that no longer rage
The giving of oneself to another
and needing no return

Not a tired sigh, or last gasp
that sees things ending,
but a deeper breath of loving
at long last well begun
Knowing all the values
that finally showed themselves
were in us then, are in us now,
will be there yet tomorrow