Never Too Late
It’s too late for Woodstock
but not for that leopard-skin pillbox-hat
the one Bob Dylan made fun of
and Jackie O passed over for pink
It’s too late for a star on Hollywood Boulevard
to walk the red carpet
or become a Jungian psychologist
It’s probably too late to hike the Camino
but not to see the cherry blossoms
in Washington D.C.
It’s too late to wear a bikini
to live in Tahiti off writer’s royalties
But it’s never too late to know a groove from a rut
to wear your heart on my sleeve and let it break
It’s never too late put flowers on the table
to let the song birds of your childhood
sing like Jericho through middle age
To let them be blue
and enjoy them when they’re golden
to visit Claude Monet’s garden in spring
______Colleen Redman – a rewrite that has changed enough to be re-posted/ Poets United / Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads
October 30th, 2016 11:55 am
It was not too late way back then and clearly not now.
October 30th, 2016 12:14 pm
Ah, I so love this. I wrote one much like it some years ago, just with different aspirations….never too late for flowers and music. I especially love “let the songbirds of your childhood/sing like Jericho through middle age.” Sigh. Gorgeous.
October 30th, 2016 1:17 pm
Yes, true. We definitely shouldn’t continually focus on what we canNOT do. We should go about doing what we CAN. Makes for a much happier and contented life.
October 30th, 2016 1:22 pm
Love the of what we CAN do, and not just lament what we can do… and after all, you just get bored in Tahiti… even Gaugin did.
October 30th, 2016 2:24 pm
Oh this is soo heart stirring.. definitely.. its never too late ❤️
October 30th, 2016 3:44 pm
I had a birthday recently, a big number. I love the hope in this poem, a reminder to me to do, live, enjoy what I can before it really is too late.
Lovely poem!
October 30th, 2016 4:29 pm
A great message regarding change and the many options that are still available. It’s never too late for flowers or songbirds.
October 30th, 2016 4:47 pm
Yup! That was an awesome piece.
Oh, yes we consider avoiding the bikini (foolish consideration 🙂 as I have, to avoid the tong (now that is foolish consideration :))
ZQ
October 30th, 2016 10:05 pm
I love everything about this Colleen–it is all about joy for me–and Tahiti is overrated anyway
October 31st, 2016 1:08 am
I can relate to this!
October 31st, 2016 1:43 am
Absolutely – there is always time for some things. (However, for me – there was never a time for a bikini.)
October 31st, 2016 4:13 pm
I’m still trying to balance a mattress on a bottle of wine.
October 31st, 2016 7:17 pm
And then become win the Nobel prize in literature for talking about it!
November 1st, 2016 12:03 pm
Too late for soooo many things, but not for so many others. You had me at “Woodstock!”
November 2nd, 2016 6:26 am
Oh, very nice… but I am thinking about who decides that it’s too late for these things.
November 2nd, 2016 9:13 am
Some are obviously too late, like Woodstock, which I missed by an inch, and others I have decided due to slowing down and aging and having my knee got out. So it’s me talking to myself.
November 2nd, 2016 11:14 am
[…] 3. It’s too late for Woodstock / but not for that leopard-skin pillbox-hat / the one Bob Dylan made fun of / and Jackie O passed over for pink / It’s too late for a star on Hollywood Boulevard / to walk the red carpet / or become a Jungian psychologist / It’s probably too late to hike the Camino / but not to see the cherry blossoms / in Washington D.C. / It’s too late to wear a bikini … Read the rest of this newly re-written poem HERE. […]
November 3rd, 2016 2:42 am
Time passes and things move out of our grasp…
Love your words.
Anna :o]