Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.-Mary Oliver
Whether you are looking forward to your later years, or are already lamenting the time gone by, poems about aging covers the range of emotions that comes with growing older. Each poet offers their perspective, sometimes reflecting back on the past with nostalgia, others with regret. Some look to the future and dread what they will lose. Some embrace aging, welcoming it with open arms, while others call for you to rage against it.
The feelings around aging can be hard to put into words. But these poets, no matter how different their experience with growing older, their worries about the future, or their memories of the past, somehow manage to capture those feelings and put them in verse. So, if you are feeling a way about growing older, but can’t quite express it, can’t quite put your finger on it, these poems are for you.
Big Clock, by Li-Young Lee
When the big clock at the train station stopped,the leaves kept falling,the trains kept running,my mother’s hair kept growing longer and blacker,and my father’s body kept filling up with time.
Do Not Go Into That Good Night, by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Abracadabra, by Kara Van De Graaf
How many hours have I wastedtrying to turn this into that, a rabbitand a hat, a woman whose bodycan split into three separate pieces.This is my idea of magic, hidingwhat exists in plain sight:
A Body’s Universe of Big Bangs, by Leslie Contreras Schwartz
A body must remind itselfto keep living, continually,throughout the day.
Forgetfulness, by Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to gofollowed obediently by the title, the plot,the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novelwhich suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,
Poetry Collections
Coming to Age: Growing Older with Poetry, by Carolyn Hopley and Mary Ann Hoberman
This exquisitely giftable anthology of poems about age and aging reveals the wisdom of trailblazing writers who found power and growth later in life.
At eighty-two, the novelist Penelope Lively wrote: “Our experience is one unknown to most of humanity, over time. We are the pioneers.” Coming to Age is a collection of dispatches from the great poet-pioneers who have been fortunate enough to live into their later years.
Those later years can be many things: a time of harvesting, of gathering together the various strands of the past and weaving them into a rich fabric. They can also be a new beginning, an exploration of the unknown. We speak of “growing old.” And indeed, as we too often forget, aging is growing, growing into a new stage of life, one that can be a fulfillment of all that has come before.
Older, Wiser, Shorter: The Truth and Humor of Life After 65, by Jane Seskin
OWS is an intimate collection of 89 poems from Jane Seskin, a working psychotherapist and author. Seskin, authentic, funny, insightful, quirky and heartfelt, acknowledges the disappointments, physical vulnerability and emotional loss taking place in her senior years. She is able to discover within herself a solid sense of power, resilience and new-found joys through her struggles to acknowledge, accommodate and accept her aging. Seskin’s ability to make the very personal universal, will resonate with readers seeking to discover new ways to honor the past, celebrate the present and welcome the future. A Reading Guide to the poems will inspire further reflection and discussion for book and women’s groups.
Looking for more poetry? Check out our curated lists of poetry books or our giveaways. Continue to explore little infinite to find classic poetry, modern poetry, and more.
