To Waken An Old Lady in  General  General   

Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind—
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested—
the snow
is covered with broken
seed husks
and the wind tempered
with a shrill
piping of plenty.

By William Carlos Williams

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Other poems by William Carlos Williams:

• A Celebration
• A Goodnight
• A Sort Of A Song
• Approach Of Winter
• April Is The Saddest Month
• Aux Imagistes
• Berket And The Stars
• Blizzard
• Complaint
• Complete Destruction
• Danse Russe
• Dedication For A Plot Of Ground
• from "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"
• Heel & Toe To The End
• Item
• Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus
• Light Hearted Author
• Light Hearted William
• Love Song
• Muier
• Nantucket
• Overture To A Dance Of Locomotives
• Pastoral
• Poem (As the cat)
• Portrait Of A Lady
• Romance Moderne
• Spring And All
• Suzanne
• Sympathetic Portrait Of A Child
• The Cold Night
• The Crowd At The Ball Game
• The Dance
• The Defective Record
• The Desolate Field
• The Disputants
• The Great Figure
• The Hunters in the Snow
• The Ivy Crown
• The Last Words Of My English Grandmother
• The Late Singer
• The Poem
• The Red Wheelbarrow
• The Soughing Wind
• The Term
• The Thing
• The Uses Of Poetry
• The Young Housewife
• This Is Just To Say
• To A Friend
• To A Friend Concerning Several Ladies
• To A Poor Old Woman
• To Elsie
• To Waken An Old Lady
• Tract
• Willow Poem
• Winter Trees
• Youth And Beauty