on being an [early] geezer

i think many of us have old souls and might feel older than our years. i don't necessarily mean that the body aches, creaking joints and an overall cranky disposition are symptoms of having an old soul. they might be. then again, some of us try to prolong our youth for as long as we are able to.

doesn't matter, i suppose. even when i was young i thought i was old. or at least older. not that i felt i was an old man at say age 25. just older than my age allowed. not that that imparted wisdom or humility or even say a companionable grumpiness. just an old soul.

i've always been a late bloomer. in everything. what can i say. it happens. now that i am indeed getting older and starting to look the part i still feel that i'm just beginning. i recall in my late teens and early 20s admiring the shaggy grey hair and beard of jerry garcia. that dude was beyond youth culture and looked old at a relatively early age. the effect was a timelessness.

and thom gunn went the opposite route, effectively looking like a biker all his life. still, gunn, i think didn't hide his age so that when he indeed hit is advancing years he looked, to me at least, as cool and timeless as the fonz was thought to be.

shit. so it was at a very early age when i decided to ignore the artificial constructs of the barriers between generations. they don't matter. at all. there is you. there is me. there is we. forgiving rather general generalities of course. one must still mature and change into the person(s) one develops in to being.

i'm not done with my changes. i don't think anyone is. it is with delight that i read this post by philly poet jacob russell who asks where are the awards for late blooming, geezer poets. i ask the same. or at least ask on behalf of those old soul, early geezer, poets. like me.