I take a page from James Thurber and the author of Madeleine as I describe “The Night My Father Fell Out of Bed.”
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Tag Archives: Aging
The Night Father Fell Out of Bed
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Matilda", Hilaire Belloc, James Thurber, Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeleine, Night the Bed Fell on Father Comments closed
What Rises So Far Above into the Light?
Denise Levertov’s poem about moving amongst tall trees becomes a meditation on life and afterlife.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "From Below", Childhood, Denise Levertov, mortality Comments closed
Returning Home to Aging Parents
Marilynne’s Robinson’s novel “Home” captures some of my own experience returning home.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Great American Dream, Home: A Novel, homecoming, Marilynne Robinson, parents, Philip Roth Comments closed
Poetry, a Lifeline for the Desperate
In Lee Chang Dong’s “Poetry,” an old woman poetry as a way to address the overwhelming challenges of her life.
Ulysses: Do Not Go Gently into Retirement
A discussion of Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” led a group of senior citizens to conclude that it’s about a man who is experiencing difficulties transitioning into retirement.
Growing More Liberal as We Age
Frost may allude to the belief that we become more conservative as we age, but his own poetry refutes the claim.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "I Never Dared Be Radical When Young", Birches, racism, Robert Frost, tolerance Comments closed
At 60, a Comfortable Old Scarecrow
Having just turned 60, I’ve been thinking of Teiresias. Wise though the blind seer may be, his advice doesn’t help others that much. Aging, in other words, appears to require humility.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bacchae, Carl Jung, Euripides, Homer, Odyssey, Oedipus, Sophocles, T. S. Eliot, Wasteland Comments closed