Does anyone under the age of 50 understand this poem?

Ah, yes, "The Tears of Time". Isn't it amazing how, as we get older, we see things so differently than when we are young? Reflection is a part of our personal growth.

Good poem. One I can truly relate to.

Yes, I understand it. I do think there is a difference with fondly looking back and recalling special memories of the life you've lived so far, versus spending so much time in the past that you never see the wonder or beauty that surrounds you today.It's a matter of attitude I think. Most of us as we mature and see through the eyes of a little wisdom, reflect on the past and wish we might have done some things differently. But I try to live for today and enjoy every day and every person, that is special in my life. I don't ever want to rob myself of today because I dwell too much on yesterday.It is a very nice and reflective poem that we can all relate to.

Being well over the age of 50, I certainly understand your beautiful, wistful poem. I think it takes the many years of aging to get to the looking-back stage, so I doubt that most people under 50 will be able to understand, although they will think they do. Funny thing about regret, I've found....it seems to me that we don't have a lot of choice in the matter....we're going to regret things, no matter what.

When I was in my 20s, I decided I didn't want to go to my grave regretting things I hadn't done. Well, I'm a lot closer now to the grave than I was then, and when I look back at things I did, under that philosophy, I find also that I regret some of the things I did do.

When we make decisions, all we can do is base them on the information we have at the time. But sometimes we aren't yet mature enough to make a right decision or the information we have is insufficient. Mostly I am content with my life and what I've done with it. But I could have done better.

Truth is, I had these types of thought and emotion while leaving Arizona and all I knew and loved, going with my too-young and too meek mom and the man who stold us both from my father to his Tennessee pin-up porn mom .....................................and I was 3, such feelings should never be known to a 3 year old, I know, but I can recall the sorrow and long-lost friends and somehow it made time and age quite meaningless, because my mind had just been transformed into something ......else.....this is hard to explain, I don't know if it is getting through?.............but the whole damn thing is also linked to the song 'Country Roads' by John Denver. I cannot compose myself with that song playing...

on a lighter note, my first gynocologist looked exactly like John Denver. I had *wrong feelings* about him, LOL... and he DIDN"T!!! I thought, at the time, he was just strange- or gay- but later I found out that some grown men didn't have *wrong feelings* about 12 year old girls. The very realization, when it happened, just astounded me ROTFL...well, yeah, maybe laughing but that's only because it is SO NOT FUNNY that it just cracks me up.........oh, and thanks for this oppurtunity to purge further, I'm the eqivalent of a bulemic except I'm texting bile and regurgitating

the emotional contents held in 20+ years of denial.

I take that it's about inner reflection. Looking back and realizing that while you were making the memories, they had less significance than they do now. It also seems to say that you wish you could go back and change things (but that's something that I don't think I'll have when I'm older). And tears of time doesn't mean time itself crying, but the tears that result from inner reflection on the past.

i agree with jon m: "The residues of spectral debts" is a very interesting and evocative sentence. in my opinion, it is the gem in the poem. i also quite like "genial spirit thrown off track" for some reason... i otherwise find it a little too sentimental and nostalgic (but i hasten to add that, although i am closer to fifty than i am to thirty, i am by no means an expert in poetry). i was glad to read it :)

I once told my dear friend: Age is counted not by the number of years that passed since you were born, but by the quality of events you outlived.

Not long ago I have turned 34, but I already feel not only like the poem of yours, but even like this one:

Bored And Sad

It's boring and sad, and there's no one around

In times of my spirit's travail...

Desires!...What use is our vain and eternal desire?..

While years pass on by - all the best years!

To love...but love whom?.. a short love is vexing,

And permanent love's just a myth.

Perhaps look within? - The past's left no trace:

All trivial, joys and distress...

What good are the passions? For sooner or later

Their sweet sickness ends when reason speaks up;

And life, if surveyed with cold-blooded regard,-

Is stupid and empty - a joke...

Mikhail Lermontov

Salve Socrates

The times of reminiscence - seems to come - after the excitement and bustle of active life. Not much time to think back - when all energy is spent - thinking forward. Funny how the stages of life - dictate special actions. Almost like it was planned ♥

http://thrownintotraining.files.wordpress.com/2008...

Under and understanding. Trying to become true to my spirit again, so that regrets will not get the best of me. I am coming to believe that these 'tears of time' can bring renewal, no matter the age. Lovely words you have written here.

I have to say as a person 34 years under 50, I do understand it... I haven't lived through so much in the same way but yes, it makes sense and I think it's a great poem!