Growing into Old - a poem by my friend Sally Graham

Well, here we are on the eve of National Poetry Day and my friend Sally has just read me a poem she's written called 'Growing into Old.'  

As Sally is in her 80s, but with more energy than 3 people half her age, I thought it would be a lovely, hopeful poem to put up for the day itself, whose theme is Change.

Growing into Old

Growing into old, expanding to fulness

The gathering harvest ripe, savoured, mellow

No longings for the fragile shoots of youth

The struggle to reach up to the light

No shadows steal it

Every leaf caressed by light

Light which filters twixt the branches

Reaches to the sap still rising

Life vigorous

The seasons gentler

The urgent passion to hold on, gone

The soaring spirit free now

To chant a vibrant joyful love-song to the ever-growing years.

By Sally Graham

Sally is presently enjoying spending more time writing the story of her time in Africa with the Karamojong  - a warrior tribe in North East Uganda - working with village midwives. 

Here are some of the VMM stories and new work opportunities http://www.vmminternational.org/