What I’ve been reading...

 

From my introduction to ‘Age is Just A Number’, to be published in March 2020. 

It was such an honour to be asked to be editor of this lovely collection.

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‘Poetry can find the words for the most important of our human experiences. 

It can shine a light on our own lives and the lives of others.

This wonderful collection compiled by Littleborough U3A Creative Writing Group

examines the whole inevitable ageing process with honesty, humour and courage. 

Inevitably memories are tangled up in the writing when poets deal with what it means

to grow older.

 

So we have poems here that examine what we now see in the mirror, and how it

compares to past reflections.  We have poems that deal with childhood, poems that

deal with loss and bereavement and those that celebrate the essential spirit and beauty

that endures even amongst the unavoidable changes that come to our senior selves.

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Poets have always dealt with themes of mortality and the natural world, and in

describing the changes that the seasons bring  the poets here have written wonderful

meditations on age and what may come with it.

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Some of these poems come from members of the Littleborough U3A group but others

come more widely from the borough of Rochdale and represent a range of writing and

life experience. You will only have to read a few before you see their beauty and

sincerity, and how such an important theme is dealt with so beautifully and in so

many different ways.

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There are distinct pleasures in both writing and in reading  poetry. I am sure that

whether a writer or a reader [or both] you will be inspired by the pieces to be found

in this anthology. 

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In conclusion let me borrow the words of  Maureen Harrison from her poem, ’The Broken Trumpet’, ’Forget the rust, see the beauty’.’