Clarity

[Jerrybaldy]

As a boy I must have looked above
and seen just clear blue skies,
without transparent scribbles
floating before my eyes.
I wish now, I had known,
the picture could not stay clean,
that page by page, the stains of old age
would wander before each scene.
I picture a time thats approaching
when the scribbles all fade with my sight.
I look back at the boy with the blue sky
yearn his day, as I slip into night.

[hillwalker]

Simple but quite elegant.

Nice one

[Delta40]

reflecting in the dirt that has accumulated over time....

[Jerrybaldy]

Thank you both. I wrote this having come in from the garden annoyed at the 'floaters' before my eyes. The parrallel that you refer to, Delta, became inevtiable as I wrote it. I decided not to entitle it 'Floaters' as, certainly in this country, that would be a very dodgy title :)
cheers
JB

[Delta40]

I think in America a floater is a body pulled out of the water but I might have watched too much Law & Order! I think Australia has the same definition as UK

[Jerrybaldy]

The medical term of eye 'floaters' in your vision must be universal. After that Aus/Uk have their head in the gutter as traditional :)

[PrinceMyshkin]

Melancholy, but handled with grace.

[Jerrybaldy]

Thank you Prince.
'Melancholic and graceful' sounds a good quote to me.
cheers
JB

[Haunted]

The transition from blue skies to night brings on the solemnness of a life cycle. There's also a clarity that comes with age, a paradox in the presence of floaters. Very well done.

Delta, in the US floaters are used to mean different things. In cop shows floaters are dead bodies that surfaced in the water as you pointed out. When you go to an eye doctor they're talking about those specks floating in your vision.

[dafydd manton]

I know it has nothing to do with what you were thinking, Jerry, but initally it made me think of aircraft con-trails! Particularly, those images from the Battle of Britain. Silly, isn't it? Should I tell 'em what a floater is in Common English, or would you like to?

[angliholic]

As a boy I must have looked above
and seen just clear blue skies,
without transparent scribbles
floating before my eyes.
I wish now, I had known,
the picture could not stay clean,
that page by page, the stains of old age
would wander before each scene.
I picture a time thats approaching
when the scribbles all fade with my sight.
I look back at the boy with the blue sky
yearn his day, as I slip into night.

Hi, Jerry,

I love this poem because it reminds me of a famous Chinese saying--

At one time in life, you saw a mountain and a river as a mountain and a river.
After a while, you see a mountain and a river as not a mountain and not a river.
But in the long run, you'll see a mountain and a river as a mountain and a river.