Crabby old man

Kindle · Post by **Kindle** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:25 am

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.

Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? ...What do you see?

What are you thinking......when you're looking at me?

A crabby old man,.....not very wise,

Uncertain of habit ........with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food.......and makes no reply.

When you say in a loud voice .....'I do wish you'd try!'

Who seems not to notice ....the things that you do.

And forever is losing .............. A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not...........lets you do as you will,

With bathing and feeding ... The long day to fill?

Is that what you're thinking?.......Is that what you see?

Then open your eyes, nurse......you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am ......... As I sit here so still,

As I do at your bidding,.......as I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of Ten.......with a father and mother,

Brothers and sisters .........who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen ..with wings on his feet

Dreaming that soon now..........a lover he'll meet.

A groom soon at Twenty ........my heart gives a leap.

Remembering, the vows........that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now ........ I have young of my own.

Who need me to guide ....And a secure happy home.

A man of Thirty ........... My young now grown fast,

Bound to each other ....... With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons ....have grown and are gone,

But my woman's beside me.......to see I don't mourn.

At Fifty, once more, ......... Babies play 'round my knee,

Again, we know children ........ My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me ...... My wife is now dead.

I look at the future ............I shudder with dread.

For my young are all rearing......young of their own.

And I think of the years...... And the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man.........and nature is cruel.

'Tis jest to make old age .......look like a fool.

The body, it crumbles..........grace and vigor, depart.

There is now a stone........where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass ..... A young guy still dwells,

And now and again ........my battered heart swells.

I remember the joys..............I remember the pain.

And I'm loving and living.............life over again.

I think of the years ..all too few......gone too fast.

And accept the stark fact........that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, people .........open and see..

Not a crabby old man.....Look closer....see........ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within.....we will all, one day, be there, too!

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:38 am

I saw this some time ago and found it also so very moving.

Funny how when we are young we look at older people and really cant see us ever being that old......but life seems to go quicker as we get older and one day we wake up and realise we are that older person we looked at all those years ago and remember that yes we were also that very young person once.

Years and life can be hold many memories.....some good and some bad and this poem says it all.........it can be any one of us.We can lose much as we get older but thinking about the years gone by we never lose.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:39 am

This is posted in Just For The Fun Of It? General humor & jokes? Share funny photos and jokes?

I'm not sure anyone would particularly want to know what I think of it but the chosen forum is a pretty good start.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:49 am

jimbo;1112125 wrote: at the end of the day what do any of us really have

Intellectual honesty perhaps.

An awareness that this gloop wasn't even possibly written in a geriatric home would be a good start.

I ignored it the first time it was posted. The second time I added a couple of posts which you'll find near the beginning of http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/gener ... post696624

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:57 am

spot;1112126 wrote: Intellectual honesty perhaps.

An awareness that this gloop wasn't even possibly written in a geriatric home would be a good start.

I ignored it the first time it was posted. The second time I added a couple of posts which you'll find near the beginning of http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/gener ... st696624Im sure it wasn't written in the home but written some time before.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:59 am

Carolly;1112128 wrote: Im sure it wasn't written in the home but written some time before.

By the crabby old man? That makes the crabby old woman story a lie.

Or by the crabby old woman? That makes the crabby old man story a lie.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:07 am

spot;1112129 wrote: By the crabby old man? That makes the crabby old woman story a lie.

Or by the crabby old woman? That makes the crabby old man story a lie.
I hear what your saying Spot and I for one dont really care who wrote it as Im saying about the contents of the poem and not talking about who wrote it.I personally think the words are so true and regardless who wrote it... I love it.Getting older I guess makes me think about these things more.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:19 am

Carolly;1112130 wrote: I hear what your saying Spot and I for one dont really care who wrote it as Im saying about the contents of the poem and not talking about who wrote it.I personally think the words are so true and regardless who wrote it... I love it.Getting older I guess makes me think about these things more.

So why does it need the shitty lies in the frame to make it postable? The drekk about "the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health", for example, and "the old man's sole bequest to posterity"?

If you click my link you'll find I posted what I consider a far more honest reflection on old age from a first-person perspective. The one in this thread, as first-person testimony, is completely unbelievable. Nobody in the condition the poem describes is capable of writing it and nobody capable of writing it should pretend to the condition.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:25 am

As you may know Spot I wrote a poem ......... wrote it as a Dog looking back over my life and being put in a place at the end where I was put to sleep.Imagination is a powerful tool.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:41 am

Carolly;1112139 wrote: As you may know Spot I wrote a poem ......... wrote it as a Dog looking back over my life and being put in a place at the end where I was put to sleep.Imagination is a powerful tool.

There's a very simple mechanism which conventionally deals with that circumstance. It's called authorship. the author appends his or her name to the poem. It's not left as anonymous with an impossibly maudlin frame pretending to describe its genesis. Kindle assures us that "When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value" etc etc and I don't believe any of it to be true.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:49 am

spot;1112142 wrote: There's a very simple mechanism which conventionally deals with that circumstance. It's called authorship. the author appends his or her name to the poem. It's not left as anonymous with an impossibly maudlin frame pretending to describe its genesis.FootPrints.....look and see how many claim to have wrote that and yet that is one of the most popular things ever written IMO.I even have a Huge version of it here on the wall framed.People looking for some sort of comfort for whatever reason really dont care who wrote it...... as long as get some sort of comfort out of something or enjoyment or indeed make them think.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:52 am

spot;1112142 wrote: There's a very simple mechanism which conventionally deals with that circumstance. It's called authorship. the author appends his or her name to the poem. It's not left as anonymous with an impossibly maudlin frame pretending to describe its genesis. Kindle assures us that "When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value" etc etc and I don't believe any of it to be true.Spot like I have believed things in the past......she believed it to be true.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:58 am

Perhaps we could describe such an attitude as cerebral incontinence? We could even write an anonymous poem about it and pretend it was found on a bulletin board.

Kindle · Post by **Kindle** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:11 am

Conflict makes you feel alive,

doesn't it, Spot?

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:14 am

Truth matters, Kindle. What you wrote lacked it.

Kathy Ellen · Post by **Kathy Ellen** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:37 am

This is without a doubt the most ridiculous argument that I've heard Spot. Why can't we just appreciate the beauty of this poem. So what if it has no link to an author.

It's a poem, ffs

along-for-the-ride · Post by **along-for-the-ride** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 8:36 am

I agree that it is the sentiment of the poem that stands out. It could have been written by "anonymos" at any place, at any time. There is a universal truth to the simple words.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:12 am

Kathy Ellen;1112166 wrote: This is without a doubt the most ridiculous argument that I've heard Spot. Why can't we just appreciate the beauty of this poem. So what if it has no link to an author.

It's a poem, ffs

The beauty of the poem? It's trite drivel, that's why.

Let's turn it slightly and make a variation about the dying Adolf Hitler looking back to his innocent childhood and saying I wasn't always like this, there was a time when I had no blood on my conscience, I played in the meadows and my mother thought I was a perfect child, oh woe is me that I'm so misunderstood. Acceptable? No? Neither's this one.

Beyond the drivel is the frame. Were it not for the lies in the frame I'd not have spoken at all, but "The beauty of the poem"? It's the worst doggerel I can ever recall seeing.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:21 am

Spot you say The beauty of the poem? It's trite drivel, that's why.and thats your opinion which is fair enough but the people on this thread happen to like this poem no matter how and where it started or indeed who wrote it so why do you want to argue about it and try to belittle us that happen to like this "drivel".

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:26 am

Carolly;1112227 wrote: Spot you say and thats your opinion which is fair enough but the people on this thread happen to like this poem no matter how and where it started or indeed who wrote it so why do you want to argue about it and try to belittle us that happen to like this "drivel".

Not at all, all I ask is a reasonable explanation for the frame. We're all agreed it's a lie. Why's it there? In what way is it acceptable?

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:32 am

spot;1112230 wrote: Not at all, all I ask is a reasonable explanation for the frame. We're all agreed it's a lie. Why's it there? In what way is it acceptable?Me being a Dog on a poem I wrote believe it or not is a lie also Spot even though some may find that hard to believe:yh_rotfl oh come on lighten up.Kindle put something here that many Members have enjoyed and thats what matters at the moment and if just one person gets anything out of anything they read well that sounds good to me:DAlso the Daily papers are full of lies everyday;)

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:37 am

Me being a Dog doesn't pretend to be true. Do you really think there's a "St. Louis Association for Mental Health"? The frame pretends to be true. That's why I object to it.

Mustang · Post by **Mustang** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:39 am

spot;1112126 wrote: Intellectual honesty perhaps.

An awareness that this gloop wasn't even possibly written in a geriatric home would be a good start.

I ignored it the first time it was posted. The second time I added a couple of posts which you'll find near the beginning of http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/gener ... post696624

Poem was said to have been found in the pocket of an old man who died in a hospital in Florida.

The Truth:

The story about the old man (in some versions described as 100 years old) is a fabrication.

The poem, titled Too Soon Old, was written by Dave Griffith of Fort Worth, Texas. Griffith wrote the poem more than 20 years ago and that he meant for it to be simple, and to the point, from youth through old age in his own personal life, high school football, Marines, marriage, the ravages of his own disabilities.

Someone took the poem from his site, created a false story about it, and started it circulating on the Internet.

Griffith is the author of more than 500 poems, which are posted on his website at palletmastersworkshop.com.

To Soon Old

The beauty of the poem? It's trite drivel, that's why.

Not drivel at all Spot.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:41 am

The reason I object to the frame - I've not said and perhaps I should. Someone, once a long time ago (before 1975 anyhow, I got that far back looking for it) write the poem. That's fine. I've no problem with anyone writing the poem. Someone later on, without any permission from the writer, stole the context of the poem's creation and deliberately lied about where it came from and how it became famous. It's that single act of lying I object to. I want to understand the mindset of the liar who did it. I'd like an explanation of why it's an acceptable lie to have deliberately constructed.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:42 am

Mustang;1112243 wrote: Poem was said to have been found in the pocket of an old man who died in a hospital in Florida.

The Truth:

The story about the old man (in some versions described as 100 years old) is a fabrication.

The poem, titled Too Soon Old, was written by Dave Griffith of Fort Worth, Texas. Griffith wrote the poem more than 20 years ago and that he meant for it to be simple, and to the point, from youth through old age in his own personal life, high school football, Marines, marriage, the ravages of his own disabilities.

Someone took the poem from his site, created a false story about it, and started it circulating on the Internet.

Griffith is the author of more than 500 poems, which are posted on his website at palletmastersworkshop.com.

To Soon Old

Not drivel at all Spot.
Thank you Mustang, I've already written earlier to Dave Griffith of Fort Worth, Texas asking for his opinion about this. I think this account is a lie as well. I don't think Dave Griffith wrote it though I'm prepared to accept he did if he tells me flat out that it's so. Given that the poem was already in print in 1975 with the frame already around it I think it's very unlikely. It makes it entirely impossible that it was initially framed on the Internet having been taken from his website.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:49 am

spot;1112242 wrote: Me being a Dog doesn't pretend to be true. Do you really think there's a "St. Louis Association for Mental Health"? The frame pretends to be true. That's why I object to it.Ok...so if she only put the poem on you wouldn't have a problem is that what your saying?

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:52 am

Carolly;1112256 wrote: Ok...so if she only put the poem on you wouldn't have a problem is that what your saying?

If she only put the poem on I wouldn't have a problem. I'd have thought that was obvious from the start.

Mustang · Post by **Mustang** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:54 am

spot;1112242 wrote: Do you really think there's a "St. Louis Association for Mental Health"?

Yes it does exisit.

Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri: Information & Referral

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:56 am

Mustang;1112260 wrote: Yes it does exisit.

Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri: Information & Referral

Thank you Mustang. I didn't say there was no mental health unit in St Louis, I said there was no St. Louis Association for Mental Health and there isn't. There never has been. It's a fiction, it's invented, it didn't exist.

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:56 am

spot;1112257 wrote: If she only put the poem on I wouldn't have a problem. I'd have thought that was obvious from the start.No Spot it wasn't.

Mustang · Post by **Mustang** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:59 am

spot;1112262 wrote: Thank you Mustang. I didn't say there was no mental health unit in St Louis, I said there was no St. Louis Association for Mental Health and there isn't. There never has been. It's a fiction, it's invented, it didn't exist.

Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri

(Formerly the Mental Health Association of Greater St. Louis)

Are you not seeing what I am in the link I provided? Their name has just changed. They do exist.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:00 am

Carolly;1112263 wrote: No Spot it wasn't.

Then go back, look at each of my posts in this thread - there's not many - and tell me which one confused you. It's entirely about the frame, none of it's about the poem other than a side response to your suggestion that it had any worthwhile quality to it. Just try to be fair. Of course it's the frame I'm criticizing. How can you possibly delude yourself into thinking I entered the thread to criticize the poem?

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:01 am

Mustang;1112265 wrote: Are you not seeing what I am in the link I provided? Their name has just changed. They do exist.

And what does the old name have to do with St. Louis Association for Mental Health?

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:04 am

spot;1112268 wrote: Then go back, look at each of my posts in this thread - there's not many - and tell me which one confused you. It's entirely about the frame, none of it's about the poem other than a side response to your suggestion that it had any worthwhile quality to it. Just try to be fair. Of course it's the frame I'm criticizing. How can you possibly delude yourself into thinking I entered the thread to criticize the poem?So you dont think the poem is drivel thats good.

Mustang · Post by **Mustang** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:11 am

spot;1112269 wrote: And what does the old name have to do with St. Louis Association for Mental Health?

Come on Spot, now you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. :rolleyes:

Of course it's the frame I'm criticizing. How can you possibly delude yourself into thinking I entered the thread to criticize the poem?

You entered this thread to criticize Kindle posting it.

I can only speculate that she found meaning in the poem, thus prompting her to post it without the intention of stirring up a hornets nest and being chastised for doing so.

It's a nice poem, regardless who penned it. Let folks enjoy it. :-6

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:11 am

Carolly;1112273 wrote: So you dont think the poem is drivel thats good.

You asked what I thought of it and I told you, I think it's drivel.

Mustang seems to think that if there's a St. Louis Association for Mental Health then there's no lie in the frame. It still makes a lie out of "The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health" so my quest for the liar is still just as intact. My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that both frames are a lie. The acid test would be to have access to this alleged News Magazine which is a bit difficult if the organization's fictional.

Why did the liar who wrote the lying frame write it? It's a general question. Why are lying frames accepted by people? Why is there anyone who doesn't care about matters of truth like this?

Carolly · Post by **Carolly** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:15 am

Mustang;1112278 wrote: Come on Spot, now you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. :rolleyes:

You entered this thread to criticize Kindle posting it.

I can only speculate that she found meaning in the poem, thus prompting her to post it without the intention of stirring up a hornets nest and being chastised for doing so.

It's a nice poem, regardless who penned it. Let folks enjoy it. :-6Exactly and now im leaving this thread as ive had enough of this drivel and im not talking about the poem.

Post by **spot** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:17 am

Mustang;1112278 wrote: Come on Spot, now you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. :rolleyes:

You entered this thread to criticize Kindle posting it. The fact that I blew up the last time it was posted suggests you're mistaken. I think it suggests it's the constant repetitious appearance of this spam circulating the Internet that fired me off, not Kindle.

Mustang · Post by **Mustang** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:24 am

spot;1112287 wrote: I think it suggests it's the constant repetitious appearance of this spam circulating the Internet that fired me off, not Kindle.

That's an acceptable explanation Spot and I'm glad to hear it wasn't Kindle who kindled your fire over this again.

Chezzie · Post by **Chezzie** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:57 am

Great Poem Kindle....

I loved it..

Kathy Ellen · Post by **Kathy Ellen** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:00 am

Chezzie;1112320 wrote: Great Poem Kindle....

I loved it..

I do too Chez...thank you Kindle:-4:p

Kindle · Post by **Kindle** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:44 am

I just got back home now and am amazed at the firestorm Spot has created out of this thread.

As everyone posting, with the exception of Spot,

has no problem with this thread,

and the words used in this thread,

and enjoyed the poem as it was offered to be enjoyed,

why are we defending it? Why is there a debate over this?

If no one but you, Spot, cares where it came from,

why do you keep harassing other posters about this?

You've made your point, over and over again.

Ten more posts saying the same thing is not going

to make a difference to anyone.

We like the poem, and at this point,

we don't care who wrote the poem or why.