The Good Old Days Poem by Jim Yerman

I've heard it said if you live in the past
the less future you have to enjoy…
yet, sometimes I long for the ‘good old days'…
back to the time I was just a boy…

Back when people found time for each other…
a time of kindness and courtesy…
back when we would sit in the shade and find faces in the clouds…
back when we were more innocent…and free.

Oh, I know life wasn't perfect back then…
and memory has a way
of highlighting the good while forgetting the bad
and calling it all the ‘good old days'.

Still…there's a reason we hold on to those good memories
why life seems, in retrospect, happier than it appeared
why we think back on those times with a smile…
why we remember the laughter instead of the tears…

It's because we cannot escape our past
no matter how comforting…or beautiful…or frightful…
but If we can bring the best of our past to our present..
it makes our future much more delightful…

So now when I sit in the shade and find faces in the clouds
in the belly of the mountains distinctive blue haze…
I take a moment to say thank you…for my future looks bright
because of those ‘good old days'.