Aging Poems

Aging Poems

Poems about Growing Old

Aging is a natural process of life. It begins the moment we are born. Strangely enough, most of us live under the illusion that we and our loved ones will never become old. When old age arrives, we are often unprepared. The natural order becomes reversed. The young help to care for the old. Those who need to be taken care of for the first time have a hard time accepting that they need help. This condition is a product of our culture that does everything it can to conceal the loss of youth. Confronting this reality is the beginning of a healthy relationship to life, aging and death.

37 Inspirational Poems about Aging

1 - 20 of 37

  1. 1. I Still Matter


    I'M STILL HERE

    My looks are nothing special,
    My face reveals my age,

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    • Stories 16
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    • Rating 4.59
    • Poem of the Day
    Featured Shared Story

    This poem really hit home with me. I will be 60 on my next birthday and it seems like years fly by like days. I too look in the mirror and wonder where all the lines and wrinkles have came...

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  3. 2. The Hands Of A Warrior

    Purple veins strain against the skin.
    Pale, translucent, paper thin.
    Skinny fingers clawed in monstrous shapes,
    Brown spots from years that she can't erase.

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    • Stories 4
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    • Votes 635
    • Rating 4.53
    • Poem of the Day
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    Dear Angie,
    I should have responded much sooner to your beautiful comment about my poem. I am so thrilled that you could completely relate to my words and then share them with others to help...

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  5. 3. On Aging

    When you see me sitting quietly,
    Like a sack left on the shelf,
    Don’t think I need your chattering.
    I’m listening to myself.

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    • Stories 1
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    • Votes 438
    • Rating 4.46
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    Reading this poem was very heartfelt and personal. Maya Angelou has always been my favorite author of all times, but reading this particular poem reminds me of my grandmother who I was lucky...

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  6. 4. I'm A Person Too


    Here I lie in bed again, Awaiting my next meal.
    A worker barges in my room, As if it's no big deal.

    What ever happened to courtesy? Just a little knock.

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    • Votes 598
    • Rating 4.66
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    I too worked as a CNA for 15 plus years and then I choose to do private home health care. I always respected my residents and my private clients and demanded that everyone else did. They each...

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  7. 5. The Little Boy And The Old Man


    Said the little boy, sometimes I drop my spoon.
    Said the little old man, I do that too.
    The little boy whispered, I wet my pants.
    I do too, laughed the old man.

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    • Stories 5
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    • Favorited 37
    • Votes 740
    • Rating 4.58
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    I admit I didn't know Shel Silverstein until I bought a couple of sheets of stamps with his name on each stamp and a silly little sketch of a cartoonish little girl. "Who is Shel...

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  8. 6. Living With Dementia

    She's trapped inside the prison walls
    That used to be her mind.
    The woman that she used to be,
    Has long been left behind.

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    Featured Shared Story

    Would love to read some of your experiences. I am currently caring for and have two care givers looking after my 80 year old mother.

  9. 7. The Sands Of Time

    • By Stephanie M. Lawrence
    • Published: March 2020

    I look in the mirror and see
    A stranger looking back at me.
    Who's that person standing there
    With wrinkled skin and such gray hair?

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    • Stories 0
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    • Favorited 2
    • Votes 176
    • Rating 4.57
  10. 8. Changing Places

    I see the sadness in your eyes,
    The times that you are knowing
    What's happening to your wondrous mind,
    The symptoms you are showing.

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    • Stories 6
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    • Favorited 49
    • Votes 336
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    Memories! I was 53, he 54 when the complications of Alzheimer's took him. At his prime as an exporter, his secretary fell for him. I left and visited Canada for 3 months, but on my return,...

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  11. 9. Time Is

    Time is
    Too Slow for those who Wait,
    Too Swift for those who Fear,
    Too Long for those who Grieve,

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    • Votes 52
    • Rating 4.54
  12. 10. Old Folks Laugh

    They have spent their
    content of simpering,
    holding their lips this
    and that way, winding

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    • Stories 0
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    • Votes 8
    • Rating 4.50
  13. 11. Kid Stuff

    Many, many years ago
    When I was just a kid,
    And I had just began to grow,
    There's stuff I had and did.

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    • Stories 3
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    • Votes 431
    • Rating 4.47
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    Ah, blissful childhood memories. Raised in a rural community, most relatives and friends lived on farms. Being a town kid, homemade fried chicken dinners in an oversized farm kitchen, that...

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  14. 12. Keepsake

    • By Mac Mckenzie
    • Published: September 2014

    One day my dad was hunting, from his favorite hunting stand;
    'Twas a giant Oak with perfect limbs, under which two deer trails ran.
    Now this favorite spot of Daddy's was as unique as it could be,
    'cause a lightning bolt had burned a giant hole down through that tree.

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    • Stories 2
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    • Favorited 9
    • Votes 119
    • Rating 4.38
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    My aging husband, who just turned 70 in October, still takes his grandsons out bowing and hunting ever year. He helps build the tree stands and everything, teaching them the way of the...

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  15. 13. The Forgotten Mother

    • By Ruby Latimer Edwards
    • Published: November 2006

    A gray old woman sits all alone,
    Unloved, uncherished, and unknown.
    Sitting beside her broken door,
    Dreaming of days passed long ago,

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    • Stories 75
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    • Votes 858
    • Rating 4.52
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    In March 2022, I was diagnosed with Renal cancer. I'm doing fine following up with my CTs. My kids' dad was diagnosed with hepatic cancer, lung, the works, and passed away in March. My (our)...

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  16. 14. I Am Not Old

    My eyes are fine; they are just printing words small.
    I just use a walking stick to seem stately and tall.

    Nothing is wrong with my sense of smell.

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    • Rating 4.33
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    Very nicely described and also the way it became funny was absolutely fantastic.

  17. 15. Encore!

    Those things that meant the most to me
    Are no longer in my life.
    And those people most important
    Have vanished now from sight.

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    • Stories 1
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    • Favorited 37
    • Votes 99
    • Rating 4.72
    Featured Shared Story

    I just love your poems - keep writing. You inspire me to keep writing myself.

  18. 16. Signs That You Are Old

    You find you're getting hairier though not atop your head.
    You somehow sustain injuries while sleeping in your bed.
    Your arm is not quite long enough to make the fine print clear.
    You walk into a room then think - Now why'd I come in here?

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 181
    • Favorited 6
    • Votes 44
    • Rating 4.66
  19. 17. Remember Then

    • By Catherine Cordeiro
    • Published: June 2015

    When you feel bad for what you say
    Remember your mom wasn't always this way.
    She is your mom and used to be
    A woman who cared, much like me.

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    • Stories 2
    • Shares 477
    • Favorited 32
    • Votes 80
    • Rating 4.61
    Featured Shared Story

    My mom is not 90. She is just 66 and is in that transition phase when you begin to realize she is growing old. It is a hard thing to realize. The woman who took care of you all your...

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  20. 18. The Grandfather Clock

    • By James Sielschott
    • Published: September 2014

    In a dusty, dark corner of a very old house,
    sits the tall, wooden worn out clock.
    It has seen its share of memories and pain,
    keeping perfect time with a tick and a tock.

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    We're all clocks just trying to keep up with time, knowing full that in the end, time will win.

  21. 19. Clearing The Way

    I have waited quite a long time to get old,
    So I think I should try to enjoy it.
    I can't turn it in for a refund,
    And I surely don't want to destroy it.

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    • Stories 5
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    • Votes 298
    • Rating 4.45
    Featured Shared Story

    It is genuinely a beautiful poem depicting the harsh reality of life that many of us don't really know how to handle the unwanted changes that old age brings with it. One always lives in this...

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  22. 20. Will I Lose Myself?

    Will I slowly wither like a leaf
    That falls upon the earth?
    Once void of all its Autumn hues,
    It loses all its worth.

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    • Stories 0
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    • Votes 72
    • Rating 4.40

1 - 20 of 37

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