Don'T Tell Me I Am Not Old Poem by Shalom Freedman

DON’T TELL ME I AM NOT OLD

Don’t tell me I am not old
And that I still can be young in spirit
In the winter cold it aches
And where is the returning to try yet again
When the years are gone
And the powers are not?

I didn’t know it
I didn’t see it
I became old when I wasn’t looking
And now that I am here
The fear of what is to come
Weighs against and with
The failures of what can no longer be.

I am not dead yet, it is true
And I do have a certain courage left to struggle
But the light is dimmer and dimmer
And the sounds of salvation from a distance
Farther and farther away.

I call to G-d
I pray to G-d
I need God
I fear God
I even think sometimes
I love God
But who am I
When God is so Great and Beyond us all?