Diary of Old Age, No. 9

50 years ago on April 5th,
half century as vultures fly,
I began a long, dramatic
and trembling entrance
as scared & doubting outlier
to the formidable horizon
of brutal, desperate sobriety,
the evasive & elusive sacred
sobriety rumored to exist
now possibly here at hand
through rigors of a passing
from captivity to first light.
50 years of swerving &
battered, but breathing,
sobriety against any odds,
50 strange, gracious years
of facing fiery dragons &
living between fear & love,
50 revolving years facing
absurdity & beauty circling
God & His ecstatic sobriety.

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Alan Altany has BA & MA degrees in Catholic theology, and a Ph. D. in religious studies (University of Pittsburgh). He is a semi-retired, septuagenarian professor of Comparative Religions at a small college in Florida, USA.  He founded and edited a small magazine of poetry (The Beggar’s Bowl) and has published three books of poetry for in series, “Christian Poetry of the Sacred”:  A Beautiful Absurdity (2022), The Greatest Longing (2023), and Intimations (2024).  His poetry has been published by Tipton Poetry Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Valley Voices, Sand Hill Literary Magazine, The Hong Kong Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Montreal Review, St. Austin Review, and others. Website:  https://www.alanaltany.com/.