On the Slope - by
I cling to the railings as befits my station:
/ a senior person slipping slowly downhill.
/
/ The world no longer our oyster,
/ gone…
ageing
Blight - by
Each of us is old
/ and our brave silks begin
/ to fall from us. Draw close
/ in the chapterhouse of skin.
/
/ How shall we…
Well-worn - by
I have worn everything you gave me –
/ The ring, of course, and that absurd string of beads
/ Reaching to…
Autumn Compensations - by
Books in cosy littered room ,
Feet in slippered ease,
Silver candles in the gloom,
Stars in naked trees
Aquafit - by
I join the usual coven in the pool, ladies past
a certain age, warming up their tonsils.
Hanging On - by
I’m hanging on to your early days
/ when you can’t wait for me to arrive
/ for cuddles and tickles and…
Old Age - by
I have, I think, most organs that
/ I started with. Some shaped by time
/ foreshortened, elongated, dulled.
/ I keep at bay…
On Being Eighty - by
Broad in the beam? More broad in sympathy.
/ Stiff in the joints? More flexible in mind.
/ Deaf on the right? New voices…
Upbeat @ Seventy - by
You have that blithe intake of breath, singularly
/ keen to startle a new day, release pure melody
/
/ that brightens everything; the…
Weathering - by
In my father’s carved face, the bright eye
He sometimes would look out of, seeing a long way
through all the tree-rings of his history.
The Old Nobby - by
My hull is leaking like a sieve,
/ The paint is flaking off my hatches,
/ My heart’s not worn upon my sleeve
/ (But on…
Thursday - by
Gave yet another lecture. God, I’m boring.
/ Said all the same old things I’ve said before
/ With touches of ‘however-ing’ and ‘therefore-ing’.
/ Dear…