The Poetry of Aging

If you are in southern Oregon, you may like to participate in The Poetry of Aging, an event I am offering on December 2nd at the Ashland Library.

I am jazzed about it! For several reasons. One, it is a marvelous program that will move you, stretch you and give you food for thought.  If you are thirsty for the deep song that poetry brings, it will bring to your ears a refreshing music.

On a personal note, this event is a wonderful chance for me to offer my thanks for having lived in the Ashland area for over 30 years. It's a wonderful place and I have experienced many blessings and much growth here.

Actually I moved here in 1977. I notice that I am often saying "for over 30 years." It's not confined to remarks about how long I've lived here. Instead, the phrase "for over 30 years" seems to have entered my vocabulary as a way of talking about various items in my past. I've been a Buddhist for over 30 years. I've been involved in holistic and spiritual healing for over 30 years. You get the picture.

Back to The Poetry of Aging--I am glad to have this opportunity to share my passion for creative aging and to engage my own creative gifts through the medium of poetry. I've been collecting poetry on aging for several years, but it just occurred to me recently to develop a performance event to share it. Some of the poems are well-known by poetry lovers, such as W.B. Yeats poem Sailing to Byzantium and Dylan Thomas' poem Fern Hill which I set to music many years ago. But most are not much known. It is going to be wonderful, and it will be even more so if you are there.

As Stanley Kunitz said, “The poem comes in the form of a blessing—‘like rapture breaking on the mind'."

Be advised!

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.  ~Plato

Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.  ~Novalis