legacy

The Task of Being Remembered

When understood as a psychological developmental task, it’s not surprising that legacy insists on being addressed, either consciously or unconsciously. Yet because seniors are old doesn’t mean they understand this process. When faced with it, most people do not have…

Continue Reading

Wishes

Aging is like a zoom lens. The longer we hang around, the clearer we see what matters. We also see what was worth a second look or might be included in a second chance. Anne Porter’s poem “Five Wishes” is…

Continue Reading

Once Young Parents

Worn photographs of once young parents are preludes to well known destinies, historical starting points that stir speculation about what might have been. This is the space that Deborah Cummins has captured in her striking poem “Another Life.” It reminds…

Continue Reading

Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 4

Adult children live in a bittersweet world of loss and gratitude regarding aging parents. Barbara Crooker’s poem All Saints Day captures this emotional mixture as it attends her mother’s leaving… All Saints Day By Barbara Crooker It’s one day past…

Continue Reading

Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 3

The loss of an aging parent is not an isolated event. Rather, their passing is part of the thinning social fabric of middle age and beyond. Siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins friends, associates and casual acquaintances all start to take their…

Continue Reading

Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 2

We back into life review on the path to the end. Dana Gioia moving poem The Lost Garden captures the cognitive melody of recalling who and what has come to define us as well as the wisdom of “wanting nothing…

Continue Reading

Poetry and Aging Parents

The drama of aging parents takes courage and poetry. Mark Halliday’s moving poem about the legacy of his aging parents reminds us that every life longs for a narrative, albums that celebrate the journey and comfort the hearts of those…

Continue Reading

Dancing with Life Review…

Boomers are feeling their age and the pull of life review. It is poetry at its finest as is Dorianne Laux’s magical poem about our swan song. Dark Charms by Dorianne Laux Eventually the future shows up everywhere: those burly…

Continue Reading

The Talk of Life: Organic Legacy, Out Loud

“What’s so important about saying it out load?” I was asked a few months ago during a Q&A session at the end of one of my presentations that talked about ?creating an organic legacy? Good question I replied. What is…

Continue Reading