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Rhona Aitken


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The air is heavy with old -age—
cheerful in acceptance,
torturous in movement.

Music carries back to courtship,
conversations have a dated base
redolent in humor, love, sorrow.

A flair of youth and competence
assures us that each day
is comfy with care and tea-cups,

The outside world
 brings flowers, family stories,
grandchildren—days of laughter.

This world of past endeavour—
a time for reminiscence.
Dancing years are gone—
yet there is always beauty
in the setting of the sun.


© by Rhona Aitken.
Used with permission.

 


Rhona Aitken (1925 - 2018) lived all over the world during the course of her life. The author of The Memsahib's Cookbook, which she wrote while living in India and for which she also provided all of the illustrations, Rhona and her husband, Gordon, owned and operated a hotel in the U.K. for many years. After that venture, they bought an old-world house and turned it into a thriving restaurant. Rhona had three children and seven grandchildren, all of whom inherited her love for travel. For the last few years of her life, she lived in a nursing home in Exmouth, England, where she wrote poetry, painted, shared Your Daily Poem every morning with her fellow residents, and continued to travel—on her 3-wheeler—as long as she was able.

 

 

 


Post New Comment:
Jo:
What a beautiful poem, full of acceptance and peace.
Posted 05/16/2024 11:41 PM
Anastasia:
Lovely and encouraging, as I am starting to contemplate the advance of my sunset years.
Posted 05/16/2024 10:19 PM
CamilleBalla:
Beautyiful perspective, cheerful in accepance, a poem to remember. Thank you.
Posted 05/16/2024 06:35 PM
ghctenmile@earthlink.net:
What a pleasure this oldster has in reading Rhona Aitken's poem--"beauty in the setting of the sun".
Posted 05/16/2024 12:26 PM
MLove:
Oh my. How beautiful!
Posted 05/16/2024 11:59 AM
Adriana:
Such a lovely poem. I particularly like the lines "conversations have a dated base, redolent in humor, love, and sorrow." We can only hope to find and provide a bit of beauty in our own setting sun - as she did and does in hers.
Posted 05/16/2024 10:49 AM
DavidTookey:
Beautiful, precise and warm. Everything a poem should be. Godspeed to you Rhona.
Posted 05/16/2024 10:46 AM
EstherJ:
Thank you for this perspective. And thanks to Jayne for the backstory.
Posted 05/16/2024 10:17 AM
Wilda Morris:
So lovely and up-beat.
Posted 05/16/2024 09:47 AM
cork:
The first stanza is a poem in itself.
Posted 05/16/2024 09:46 AM
Larry Schug:
How fortunate we are to have reached old age. You express it well, Darrell. The final three lines of this poem reminds me to be where and when I am at any moment, in other words to pay attention. I think these words shower us in a certain kind of light.
Posted 05/16/2024 08:53 AM
Darrell Arnold:
I treasure the old ones. I always have. They have so much to say and to share. I interview them. I wrote down what they say. I help them with simple chores that are now difficult for them to accomplish. At almost 78, I have younger people now helping me do things. And I write, write, write poetry and stories, many of them almost completely forgotten until I find them in one of the many old journals I kept all my life. I want to leave a mark. Mine will be literary and photographic. Rhona was awesome and inspirational.
Posted 05/16/2024 08:22 AM
JanetRuth:
So many great lines! genius<3
Posted 05/16/2024 07:31 AM
bobbi43sml@aol.com:
I love the line. a world of past endeavor .. such a perfect expression of how memories surround and enlarge your bonus years as my 87 yr old husband has tagged the 9 th decade.
Posted 05/16/2024 07:15 AM


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