Edna Jacques - Forty

Now that I'm forty...and going stong,
I've learned to meet Life with a laugh and a song,
Knowing that nothing is ever so bad
But it might have been worse than the trouble I've had;
Learned to be thankful for life's simple things,
Glad for the blessings that poverty brings.

Now that I'm forty...I can look back
Over the sweep of that old beaten track,
Laugh at old failures (such tragedies then) ,
Live the nice parts of it over again,
Count up the blessings.. the losses..the tears,
Wine of the universe-salt of the years.

Now that I'm forty.. with life all ahead,
Years to be thankful in, sheltered and fed,
With courage and fortitude born of the fray,
Life just beginning...dawn on the way;
Glad for the years that have given me grace
To stand here today and look LIfe in the face.

Edna Jacques

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forty/