Life is Simpler Now:Poem by Robertson McQuilken

Life is Simpler

Life Is Simpler, Now

A poem by Robertson McQuilkin whose late wife, Muriel, suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

Life is simpler, now.

Time and tide have set.

The boundaries of choice:

Is it to stop

And wait

The gathering storm,

Hand in hand?

Or should we merely

Slow the pace

And press ahead,

Strange winds

Your painful sacrifice

Enabling me to strike

A few more blows?

Life is simpler, now,

Defined no longer

By what we do

So much as who we are:

I am your security,

My companionship

Your only haven

From the buffeting of

Strange winds

Deeply felt

And little understood;

I am set to shield you

From those grim terrors

That may lurk around the bend.

And you?

Your mind is tethered

By strands of love

And joy and tough endurance,

Woven strong across the years.

I stand in awe.

And take courage

From your strength

To press on.

Life is simpler now,

No longer knitting these two lives

With threads of conversation,

But with the wordless

Assurances of love.

The motions of my soul

More deeply tender,

Hammered by the blows

Of adverse winds.

Love more pure, intense,

Emerges from the fire.

Life is simpler, now -

God’s good gift

For two busy people

Who celebrate the past

And quietly wait

With hope