Tuesday, June 15, 2010

on being an [early] geezer

i think many of us have old souls and might feel older than our years. i don't necessarily mean that the body aches, creaking joints and an overall cranky disposition are symptoms of having an old soul. they might be. then again, some of us try to prolong our youth for as long as we are able to.

doesn't matter, i suppose. even when i was young i thought i was old. or at least older. not that i felt i was an old man at say age 25. just older than my age allowed. not that that imparted wisdom or humility or even say a companionable grumpiness. just an old soul.

i've always been a late bloomer. in everything. what can i say. it happens. now that i am indeed getting older and starting to look the part i still feel that i'm just beginning. i recall in my late teens and early 20s admiring the shaggy grey hair and beard of jerry garcia. that dude was beyond youth culture and looked old at a relatively early age. the effect was a timelessness.

and thom gunn went the opposite route, effectively looking like a biker all his life. still, gunn, i think didn't hide his age so that when he indeed hit is advancing years he looked, to me at least, as cool and timeless as the fonz was thought to be.

shit. so it was at a very early age when i decided to ignore the artificial constructs of the barriers between generations. they don't matter. at all. there is you. there is me. there is we. forgiving rather general generalities of course. one must still mature and change into the person(s) one develops in to being.

i'm not done with my changes. i don't think anyone is. it is with delight that i read this post by philly poet jacob russell who asks where are the awards for late blooming, geezer poets. i ask the same. or at least ask on behalf of those old soul, early geezer, poets. like me.

5 Comments:

At 8:04 AM, Blogger John B-R said...

I don't know anything about awards, but there's no reward better than keepin on keepin on ...

I'm turning 60 in November. I'm beginning to realize that there is a difference between having countless opportunities ahead and having them cease to be countless. If I'm really lucky I'll have approx 15 top of the game writing years left. I didn't used to feel that.

I don't know what that has to do with old. But it's sobering.

 
At 12:07 AM, Blogger richard lopez said...

john, i feel that way now as i'm situated firmly in my 40s. i have a few decades if i'm lucky and those will go by so quickly. that is a cold glass of water on my face. i suppose what i'd like is to know the years are going past but still feel that there are opportunities in such abundance i'd need several lifetimes. but i don't. this one is enough. i'm looking forward to, perversely i guess, to becoming that wizened old man. i think. i'll let you know when and if i get there. in the meantime, as the old roman poet said, CARPEFUCKINGDIEM!

 
At 7:41 AM, Anonymous Jacob Russell's Barking Dog said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu0brlGGQ2Y

 
At 6:59 PM, Blogger Jean Vengua said...

Hmm, yeah, how about an award for "emerging older poets"? Or a conference on survival strategies for emerging older poets? Or awards for surviving to be an older poet? Or a conference on ageism in poetry publishing?

(patting myself on the back)

sigh

 
At 11:04 PM, Blogger richard lopez said...

thank you, jacob. cool song.

jean, i'll pat you on the back. i try to take small comfort in the knowledge that everyone gets older. without exception. what we think of as youth is so fleeting so really but it seems, to the young, that being young and new fangled is rather a permanent state of being. instead of worrying over it i'd rather cultivate my greying hair and work on developing my own poetics as i live thru these rapidly advancing years. i'm not gonna stop living my life because i'm getting older. neither am i gonna stop my writing because i'm getting older. write on, jean!

 

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