"THIS IS MY LIFE AND I FEEL SO ALIVE" m.k.

I found a young poet, new to me.  I hope you like this poem too. 

I WANT TO WAKE UP EVERY MORNING,

EXCITED FOR WHAT IS TO COME.

I WANT TO LOOK UP AT THE SKY 

AND FEEL THE WARM SUN ON MY FACE.

I WANT TO GO ON WALKS AND HIKES

AND FEEL HEALTHY AND STRONG.

I WANT TO FEEL PRODUCTIVE AND SATISFIED.

I WANT TO TAKE MORE PHOTOGRAPHS

AND TAKE UP NEW HOBBIES.

I WANT TO BECOME FRIENDS

WITH MORE INTERESTING PEOPLE

WHO WILL TEACH ME ABOUT

PLACES I'VE NEVER BEEN.

I WANT TO FEEL ALIVE.  
m.k.

Isn't a lot of what she wants what we want? This was written by the poet Madisen Kuhn who goes by m.k.  She also wrote this, and at age 17,

 I will not ask you to stay

If you must go, go

I don't need you

I will breathe (carefully) without you

I will smile (slowly) without you

I will go on (eventually) without you 

The pace of this poem is just right. It matches the thoughts.  Mostly one syllable words. You can read the first 3 lines quickly.  They're kind of gutsy.  Then in the last 3 lines we see that the "go I don't need you" is bravado. The pace changes, we get parentheses and multi-syllable words.  Even the one syllable words, "smile" and "breathe" take longer to say. The poem slows with the poet's thoughts.  No bravado now.  The depth of the loss is revealed, but it's not unbearable.  There's hope. Tentative, but still . . . she's young.  She knows her life will go on.  The poet took care with this poem. 
 
Many of her other lines are lovely too.  

you are the song 
i want to listen to

Have we felt this way about someone we love?  Do we feel this way now?  This poem ends,

and oh God
this is my life and

i feel so alive 

Some days I wonder, how can the work of someone born in 1996, just 22 years ago, touch my emotions?  But it does.  So age--youth, middle age or old age--is no barrier.  Creativity, thoughtfulness, soulfulness are not age-bound.  That is the lesson I'm learning.  Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was young when she wrote The Bell Jar. I was young when I read it.  John Keats (1795-1821)was young when he wrote and young when he died.  I enjoyed him when I was young and can enjoy him now, even his prose.  When Keats was depressed he wrote, 

 I am in that temper that if I were under water

 I would scarcely kick to come to the top. 

Such an image.  So much less formal than his poetry. 

John Milton (1608-1674) wrote as an old man.  He could not see.  I studied Paradise Lost in college.  I was young, he was old.  After my course in Milton I chose to be baptized and confirmed.  So strong was his influence.

Milton's Sonnet XIX about his blindness ends with the line, 

They also serve who only stand and wait. 

Just 8 words.  But so powerful.  The idea pushes no one aside.  We do not have to earn God's love with talents we may not have.  We can stand and wait.  We can do this no matter what our age or abilities--young, old, able or challenged.  How reassuring. 

Beethoven (1770-1827) composed when old and deaf.  Van Gogh died at 37.  So, yes, age is not relevant. None of us knows who will have a vertical audience, narrow but lasting through the ages, who will have a horizontal audience (best sellers that disappear as their replacement arrives), who will go unrecognized in their lifetime only to inspire after their death (Anne Frank, Van Gogh, Emily Dickinson), who journals and diaries in secret never to be known . . . .

Is there a moral or conclusion to be drawn? I don't know. Maybe that whatever our age this is our life and we can feel so alive.  We can learn from anyone.  We can teach anyone.  We can be public.  We can be private. We can be the one who stands and waits.