Coming of Age

The ceremony came and went.

Did it make the world new?

They’d said the years he’s thus far lent

Were now his own, to live and do

As he saw fit.

They’d said his lifetime would be split

Between the younger days he spent

As he was learning bit by bit

What being someone older meant,

And all the years

Beyond today, whose dawn holds fears

And hopes exceeding what he’s knit

Before. He hears the ringing cheers

And wonders if this moment’s lit

So differently.

He still believes that there will be

Greater dreams and stronger tears

Yet knows the truly crucial key

Is not the ceremony’s gears

But how he lives the life he’ll see.

I've been thinking about coming of age ceremonies recently, probably because some of the communities we've been working in have some pretty distinctive rituals and activities associated with passing from childhood to adulthood. But, I also have other ceremonies in mind from other places, related, for example, to things like education and religion (graduation, confirmation, bar/bat mitzvah, etc.). This poem imagines the thoughts that might be going through the head of someone participating in one of these ceremonies, contemplating the meaning of the transition and how it will affect this person's life moving forward.