Queenyforever
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Poignant....."Crabby old Man"
CRABBY OLD MAN
When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in North Platte , Nebraska , it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem. And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this “anonymous” poem winging across the Internet.
Crabby Old Man
What do you see nurses? ......What do you see?
What are you thinking......when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice”I do wish you'd try”!
Who seems not to notice the things that you do.
And forever is losing. A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen with wings on his feet dreaming
that soon now a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, Babies play ‘round my knee,
Again, we know children my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me my wife is now dead.
I look at the future. I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm now an old man and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles..........grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone........where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young guy still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells
I remember the joys I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years all too few gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people open and see..
Not a crabby old man. Look closer....see........ME!!
Remember this poem when you next meet an older person
who you might brush aside without looking at the young
soul within.....we will all, one day, be there, too!
PLEASE SHARE THIS POEM
The best and most beautiful things of this world
can't be seen or touched. They must be felt by the heart.
--- 
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9/8/2008, 1:40 pm
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Phoenix712
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Re: Poignant....."Crabby old Man"
That's excellent! So true, too. This is such a youth-oreinted society, it's hard for people to stop and see the young person that still lives in an older body.
---
Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you!
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9/15/2008, 2:26 pm
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Grannyx16
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Registered: 12-2004
Location: Tennessee, US of A
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Re: Poignant....."Crabby old Man"
That Poem is so beautiful...and so true ...I worked for years in Nursing homes and the 'Older Person' has so much to offer younger people...if the younger person/people would just take the time listen.
--- My Blog: Cross Country Trek By Horseback
Reading: 15 pges a day of the Bible & Book of Mormon
Writing: Cantor Mysteries-Eyes of the Killer(book ! of 4) |
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9/15/2008, 4:25 pm
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.....has touched me.... 
