<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">When Looking at My Baby Grandson’s Eyes</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">You would think that </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">after all these years</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br class="">after all the mistakes,<br class="">and there have been plenty:<br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">the wrong turns,</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">on the roads not taken<br class=""><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">being lost,<br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">not knowing the language</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br class="">the uncaught fish </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">in the next pond</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br class="">and the spoiled ones<br class="">in the bottom of the bag —<br class=""><br class="">that I would have learned </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">just a thing or two<br class=""><br class="">learned my place among </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">the tumbling dice of time<br class=""><br class="">learned to be, as old </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">as old is, in the mirror</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">but when I look at<br class="">the wonder in your eyes<br class=""><br class="">the future in your grasping hands </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">and hear that soft sweet murmur<br class=""><br class="">on your breath, delighting<br class="">in the shaded sun of the afternoon<br class=""><br class="">I am not so old anymore </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class="">My mistakes are forgiven<br class=""><br class="">and I have learned just this:<br class="">the path will go on without me<br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" class=""> - David Handsher</div><br class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><!-- signature open --><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div>"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."<div class=""> - Wendell Berry</div><!-- signature close --></div></div></body></html>