Ramblings of Youth

Ramblings of Youth

How I long for the days of my youth

When innocence abound
and I knew not evil

When youth was joy
and sorrow soon forgotten

These days never regained

These days forever remembered

Ah, now I am in the Restless Age

with standards dying
and faith diminishing

a time of senseless longings
and base brutality

What does the future hold for us
the Restless Ones?

Time will soon ring her answer
on the Anvil of Justice

On us,
the Generation of Lost Ones

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Comments: What a flashback into time! I wrote this poem in November, 1967. I was 23 at the time and thought I possessed an inordinate amount of knowledge about the world. Vietnam was on the rise. World annihilation was a real possibility. Violence was increasing, and race riots were occurring. Many believed that the future looked rather dim. Hope was lost. As I reread this poem some 33 years later, I realize that hope does and must always exist and that we change, both in our beliefs and actions. Frankly, I am always suspicious of someone who claims they hold the same beliefs that they did as a youth. In reality, they are saying that they have not grown as a human being. Well, this Restless One is now much more sedate, but he still dreams of helping create a better world.