Category: Poems

The autumn of my life

Sung by Sgt Barry Sadler

the song is found on YouTube if you want to listen to it.

the words are as Follows

I’m going down to the river and watch the leaves drift by

I am going down to the river and watch me life go by

This is the autumn of my life

I remember joy and strife

I’m just like the restless river

Always moving on and on

The river once was young like me

When first rushed to meet the sea

But now it’s old with passing years

My river is a sea of tears

I’m going down to the river and watch the leaves drift by

I’m going down to the river and watch my life go by

This is the autumn of my life

Gone is the love that once was mine

Gone in the autumn of my life

This song made me think and it made me cry then it made me think again.  This is what I came up with.

Yes I’m going down to the river to watch the leaves drift by

To see the beauty in the autumn colours in those leaves. To see how events in my life have marked moulded and aged me.

Boy I hope I have as much colour as those leaves!

Yes I have many things in my life flooding back to me at the moment.  Many memories good, bad, and yes, some of them ugly, some were because things were out of my control and some were my reaction to someone else while others were my own making.  The tears and the thinking are aids to sorting out this jumble of what cannot be changed but can be understood.

It is the way of age.  And just like my bank balance I have to assess it now and again.

So yes I am going down to the river to watch the leaves drift by

But I am not going down to the river to watch my life pass by.

I will remember what is beautiful what is useful and what I was not proud of

I will take into ownership and take action, where there is still time, and put things right where I can.  I will hold my head up high and let go of what is of no use to me.

Yes gone is the love of my life but as one door closed another opened so I change just like the river.  I honour that love, I bless that love and remember the fun and the strife for they are part of me.

As the river flows to the sea so I flow to my old age and the new me

Whatever age I am as long as I can get up in the morning and can see or feel the love of the universe and the energy of the brightest star I know I will be fine.

I will be who I am as I cannot change what was but I can change what is.

So yes this song made me think and it helped me to see, that watching the leaves pass by and reliving the sad times in my life does not need me to sit and let the rest of my life drift by.

Thank you Barry Sadler God rest your soul and may your voice and words build hope in all who hear it.

Love and light Demici