You and I Are Too Old Not To Allow Ourselves the Applause We've Earned: a Poem to Joy

Too Old for This Sh*t: How to Take Your Life Back from an Ageist Society

Photo by Velizar Ivanov on Unsplash

Dancing in the Audience

Dear Reader: I wrote this in my early thirties. I didn’t even begin to get to this point until I was in my sixties. But I got there. For those who might need a lift, here you go.

All my life I’ve heard the sound

Of footsteps tapping on the ground

The ground a vast and well-lit stage

With bars around to form a cage

The footsteps tapping there were mine

To tunes I never could define

And looking out beyond the bars

Into the night I saw the stars

by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Below them was a vast array

Of platform seats of hardened clay

I’d make up personalities

To sit in judgement there of me

From those seats the music roared

And high into the air I soared

To finally fall into a heap

Only wanting rest and sleep

But never did I hear applause

Or get an encore there because

The performance over, I would see

The clay seats empty. Still for me,

I wanted music. So I thought

To dance at all I must be caught

By someone else’s tune. And so,

To let me dance, I made it so.

But one day in my melted clump

Of tired flesh I felt a lump

Of something hard just fitting there

by Daryn Stumbaugh on Unsplash

I pulled a key into the air

With hesitance I sought the door

That I had faced so oft before

Slipped in my key to hear it fit

The door swung wide. I stepped through it.

A terrible crash! A crunching sound!

My stage and cage fell to the ground!

And in the silence I stood there

To hear faint clapping in the air

My audience of stars and sky

Were joyful for my choice to fly

A moment’s quiet…then I thought,

“But where’s the music?” And I sought

To find those faces with their notes

But all I found were only motes

Of stardust twinkling in the sky

I breathed in deeply, then with a sigh

Out of me came a wondrous blend

Of notes and joy enough to send

My body dancing! Off I leapt

Towards the platform, up the steps

In celebration for this song

Was what I’d wanted all along!

So with my song and precious dance

I’m dancing in the audience

And when I need a moment’s pause

I sit amidst my own applause.

All rights reserved Julia E. Hubbel

“A woman in a purple sweater holds her arms in the air outdoors aside a lake” by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

Thank you for the quick wander through a poem which has been a theme in my life all my life. I hope this gave you pleasure. If so, please consider

If you know someone who could use a little perspective please also consider

Either way, dance and sing like you don’t need an audience. You don’t.