Adieu Alexandra Taylor
Another page has turned as we say “Adieu” to Alexandra Taylor who has kept us entertained and uplifted with her poems for almost five years. AgeEsteem published her first poem, Celebrate Your Age on October 27th, 2010.
Ever since then she has been generously sharing her talents with the audience of AgeEsteem blog weekly. One of my many favorites is just four lines.
Rejoice!
Let your voice
Be the clue
To the you
Of your Choice.
Alexandra Taylor wrote this after reading the chapter “Rejoice” in my book
AgeEsteem: Growing A Positive Attitude Toward Aging
.
Her poems developed as a genuine pastime after she attended an AgeEsteem program. I well remember our discussion that began with her explaining to me that she had no talents to share. I recalled seeing cartoon characters that she had made into drawings for her children previously and as our conversation moved forward I learned that she had designed greeting cards with both drawings and prose. This soon led to her poems and my suggestion that she might like to write for AgeEsteem.
What few people know is that she wrote her poems while waiting for the bus, walking home from town, or sitting on a park bench. She wrote these rhymes on scraps of paper or envelopes that she found in the trash next to the bus stop or on the program from a concert she had attended. On the rare occasions that they were actually on writing paper, they were often stuck in an envelope already addressed and sent through the mail to someone else before she salvaged it to enclose her latest rhyme. She was a scavenger at heart! I hope to make a book of her many poems, handwritten and on “recycled” paper as she gave them to me.
Alexandra thwarted Google because she never wanted to be interviewed or to have her photo published. She was happy to simply share her talents with no acclaim. It was enough to know that others enjoyed her poems.
Alexandra’s latest poems remain to be published, two of which she wrote during her last days.
Alexandra Taylor left us in much the same way that she lived, quietly and with dignity. Death is, after all, a natural ending to this life as we know it. She leaves us with the precious gift of her wealth of poems and memories of moments shared, both of which are life continued.
Bonnie Fatio
Hospital Poetry
Doctors and nurses and
Agreeable showers
Perfusions and pink pills
Almost every hour.
The scenery is wheel chairs
And blue-sheeted beds
With plumped up white
Pillows for all patients’ heads.
There’s never a moment
For making up poems
That’s why it’s much better
To write them from home!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
while waiting to be discharged from the hospital.
An Impatient Patient
I’m an impatient patient!
Yes I am!
I want to leave now,
In a moving van!
I’m impatiently here
In a Hospital Bed –
Patience is out there
Waiting for it to be “fed”!
With calmness and coolness
And positive thoughts
(All of those attitudes which
Bonnie has taught!)
Patient and Patience
The one wants you to stay
In clinical care (patient)
The other says practice it,
No matter where! (patience)
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
The Feast Of Life
Think of Life as one long Feast,
From the “oven” of your birth
To your souffléd rise (like yeast!)
(A fine recipe for Mirth.)
Don’t ever think your “goose Is cooked”
(There’s many “fish to fry”!)
So plan a life-long Menu Book,
With Relish in supply.
Every day can be “baked” or “steamed”
(Depending on your Age Esteem!)
This “aspic” may seem a little trite
But wishes you a Good Appetite!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
It Could Be Worse!
When I fell and broke my knee
I asked “WHAT will become of me?”
I thought “Oh Woe”, but suddenly
I stopped my being sullenly
And pity-ingly … when solemnly
I turned for help in rhym-ed verse
And knew that it could be MUCH WORSE!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
It’s Tennis Time!
It’s Tennis Time
For one and all.
(I hope this rhyme
Is “on the ball”!)
Deuce or love or match or set,
Challenges are “on the Net;”
Played with lobs or stunning serves,
Be a winner, live with verve!
Some games are lost,
And others won.
This “ball” is tossed
For champions!
Courts are clay,
Or sometimes green,
But Your next play
Is Age Esteem.
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Waiting In Line
Waiting in line,
Trying to rhyme,
Time’s going by,
Life’s on the fly!
Each minute counts
Anxiety mounts!
STOP!
Simmer down!
Unwrinkle those frowns,
Luck’s on your side¨
Pluck at your pride!
Treasure the day,
Measure each way
To stifle that sigh
And smile at the sky;
It’s time to have fun
“Here comes the sun!”
(Thank you Beatles)
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Proud To Be A Woman
We should make everyday an International Women’s Day. – A day to celebrate and honor all women of the world.
I am proud to be a woman.
As a woman I have given birth to a daughter as well as to ideas, products, businesses, and AgeEsteem… I am capable to teach, lead, advise, guide, counsel, support, encourage, mentor, and sit at the decision-making table.
I am able to laugh, sing, play and dance, even though my heart may be breaking or my body in pain.
I am able to feel within me the pain and suffering of my sisters around the globe who face atrocities that no living creature should have to endure, and lift them in my thoughts and prayers.
I am able to rejoice as I watch generations of women stand up and speak out for what they know to be right and just, despite the personal risk it may involve.
Oh, yes, I am proud to be a woman and to celebrate my sisters of all ages each day of the year!
Bonnie Fatio
On Your Way
Waiting at the station
For the next train to come,
Is an occupation
Which some would find quite glum.
But like all in Life, attending
For the next and brand new day,
You can be “on track” and mending
While you’re on your Merry Way!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Light Up With Age Esteem!
While watching fireworks in the night
(Like jewelry in the sky)
I think “Oh, what a lovely sight:
Those sparkling fireflies.”
You, too, can be aglow in Life
And shine, crackle and gleam;
Just rid yourself of any strife,
Light up with Age Esteem!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
