Living Forever by Connor Kaplan

Living Forever by Connor Kaplan

I daydreamed that I was old: in great “health”   

Risen from my prime, when imagination

Was mine, forever thinking of the what ifs,   

Before science took my false reality.

My wisdom, polished like the metal that contained me, found   

Itself calculating what I could have had

In false exchange: living for immortality   

Has no “weakness”, no “limits”.

I wept for my youth, maybe this is not what I wanted,

weeping for the pain, the feelings that no longer exist,

Is this a future I want?

Living forever at the cost of my youth.

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Poem of the Day: I Dreamed That I Was Old

Posted: Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0600

I dreamed that I was old: in stale declension   

Fallen from my prime, when company

Was mine, cat-nimbleness, and green invention,   

Before time took my leafy hours away.

My wisdom, ripe with body’s ruin, found   

Itself tart recompense for what was lost

In false exchange: since wisdom in the ground   

Has no apocalypse or pentecost.

I wept for my youth, sweet passionate young thought,

And cozy women dead that by my side   

Once lay: I wept with bitter longing, not   

Remembering how in my youth I cried.

Stanley Kunitz,