Loads of poems about ageing in the Review section of today's Guardian. And if you can't be bothered/afford to buy the paper, here's the link ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/13/carol-ann-duffy-poems-ageing

Thanks for this, Greg.
I loved Roger McGough's Let Me Die a Young Man's Death to which his contribution to this is clearly, and ironically, a sequel. The irony being that in his original, the second stanza reads:

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

He was born in 1937.

I, too, recommend reading these poems.

Julian, thanks for responding. I was particularly touched by Gillian Clarke's Blue Hydrangeas, September:

"Tide-marked and freckled with the rose
of death, beautiful in decline.
I touch my mother's skin. Touch mine"

and Elaine Feinstein's wise, positive, Long Life:

"These days I speak less of death
than the mysteries of survival"

Thanks so much Greg for flagging this up - I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. I found it very moving to hear all the old voices on the audios. Really touching. My very favourite was Long Life by Elaine Feinstein. I hope I age with the same viewpoint that she has. I really identified with The Password by Anne Stevenson too. Snapshots from her life, and wondering about the younger version of her self that they depicted. I really must read more poetry! The trouble is, I read so much on WOL I don't seem to have time for anything else!

You make a good point, Ms Foxglove, about not reading enough poetry. If that is typical then it is a shame and an indictment of this site that it does not do enough to encourage reading (other:-)) good poets.
When the nights were young, as it were, and numbers were small enough, we encouraged people to bring along and share their favourite poems from established poets.
They were grand sessions and led to great discussion about influences, so forth. They were more like the French café philosophe idea that we hoped would happen, but which seems culturally impossible in the UK.
I am often surprised and saddened, and I know this is one of Paul's bonnet bees, when open-micers say they don't read much/any published poetry.
It is, I believe, only in search of the standards set by such poets, that the rest of us can hope to keep improving. For me, the joy comes in the efforts we make and the encouragement we give to each other along that road. Thank you Greg!

That's a good point Julian.
Perhaps if some of the poets who are just venturing into the world of performance poetry events and read arounds were encouraged to start by reading or performing one by a published poet, (particularly where they might not be brave or confident enough to read one of their own) it might also encourage the seasoned performers to search out the works of a poet they have never read or heard of before.
I'm not sure why it is that the same poets names are repeated time and again as if they were the only ones ever to make an impression on a budding writer.
The horizon is far broader than the likes of Larkin, Seamus Heaney, Longfellow, Shakespeare etc...
and so many of them relate only to males. What about the female poets? Were the women of old too busy doing the chores to write good poetry?

I always hesitate to place links to other sites on this one. Maybe admin should or could include some in the site links. There are at least three that i visit on occasion just to gain knowledge of a poet who is mentioned in some discussion threads and to read their works and one of them has the complete works of just about every poet in history you can think of to download free of charge as a chap book or e-book.
I'm off to visit the link Greg provided.

Perhaps everybody who reads the poems in the Guardian could go out and get at least one collection by one of the poets involved? I'd recommend Gillian Clarke and Dannie Abse, for starters.

In this Guardian piece I remember reading that WH Auden said that throughout his life, he always felt like the youngest person in the room. I have always felt like this, and it was lovely to know that other people do too. I also feel that I haven't been here before. It's all new to me. I've talked to friends about this, and most say they feel that they have been here many times before. I think this is an interesting idea. Maybe worthy of a thread of it's own?

Nudging back to the subject of ageing, I was heartened to read a piece in the Times arts section yesterday (no online link, sorry, cheapskate Murdoch) about an anthology of new, up-and coming-poets published by Bloodaxe. The age of the poets ranges from 24 to 69!
http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852248394

Many thanks for the link to the guardian article.

Thanks for the Bloodaxe info on the up-and-comings of all ages, too, Greg. Have a look, Janet, it says that it contains more women than men writers.
The links issue is an interesting one. Whilst, of course, keen to build the readership of this site, we are conscious that by promoting all poetry - via external links and other means - we are adding to the value of our site as an information hub for our readers. So the more links the better.
On the subject of reading others' work, tonight at The Howcroft we are encouraging people to read international poets' work. People like Yehuda Amichai, Mahmoud Darwish and Pablo Neruda, seem so well known around the world, yet many British poets seem ignorant of their work. I can chat to my French pals about "our" poets and they know them as well as, or better than I do.
During the Gulf war, I was travelling in the Sahara (in my Citroen 2CV). We were stopped at a police road block in a tiny, one-camel desert town, and my British passport caused a bit of a fuss. A plain-clothes officer was summoned. In perfect English he asked me what I thought of the works of Oscar Wilde, his favourite work being The Importance Of Being Earnest. True story

Hi Julian- when i referred to male poets, i meant generally as being the case in most other discussion threads. If you look back over some of the old discussions about poets and poetry, you'll understand i think. Just wanted to clear that up. Ta. :-)