Upon Turning Sixty in October

By Susan Yanos

---

Unless you be born again. . .     (John 3:3)

Do not ask this—howling winter
soon bearing down—this just now do
not ask:

born in ripeness to reject nectar
of pear, hanging heavy from bough, for rhubarb’s
tart spikes

abandon sanctuary padded with costly
harvests for road of endless summits and wind
tormented tent

let cold locked in bones seep into flesh
and brain until it under scalding sun
boils dry.

Too much your call too
much I fear I must say no while do
yes.

---

Susan Yanos is the author of The Tongue Has No Bone, a book of poems, and Woman, You Are Free: A Spirituality for Women in Luke; and is co-editor and co-author of Emerging from the Vineyard: Essays by Lay Ecclesial Ministers. Her poems, essays and articles have appeared in several journals. A former professor of writing, literature and ministry of writing, she now serves as a spiritual director, retreat leader and freelance editor. She lives with her husband on their farm in east-central Indiana (US), where she creates art quilts and tends to her hens, fruit trees and gardens.

'Upon Turning Sixty in October' was first published in The Tongue Has No Bone. It has been republished here with the author's permission.

Susan's other work on Foreshadow:
- God Who Sent the Dove Sends the Hawk (Poetry, January 2021)
- Love Song of the Anawim (Poetry, April 2021)