4 mn read What do you do? I am a published poet, fictionist, essayist, book reviewer, photographer, painter, carpenter, guitarist, and amateur social scientist. Tell us what it’s like to be your age? Being sixty-eight years old is not the same as anything I have ever experienced before. After falling from my cabin roof twelve years ago my […]
5 mn read Joolz, 66, is a poet, novelist, artist, illustrator and professional tattooist. She came to prominence in the 80s when she was often called a punk poetess and was instrumental – Justin Sullivan, the lead singer was her partner at that time – in the rise of New Model Army. She’s still writing, painting, drawing and […]
7 mn read How are you doing on the creative front? Has getting older freed you into a more creative place?
14 mn read From our inception in 2016, Advantages of Age has always had a proclivity for poetry. In 1936, William Butler Yeats, widely considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, described Edith Sitwell’s poetry – ‘Her language is a traditional language of literature — twisted, torn, complicated, choked here and there by strange resemblances, […]
4 mn read Creativity and age – an oxymoron? The early deaths of Chatterton (“the marvellous boy”), Keats, Shelley and Byron fuelled the Romantic “Good poets die young” myth. Wordsworth proved it by living too long and churning out a great deal of second-rate stuff as he grew older.
< 1 mn read A problematical bed to fill was how she put it, which left a lot of scope to wonder how the problem came about and when. In her faded Greenham Common T-shirt and cut-offs, she looked too jaunty for sudden widowhood; too down-at-heel to be on the pull, though her breasts were nicely presented. She didn’t […]
6 mn read Debra Watson, 53, is a wildly exciting woman. She runs a participative theatre, art and media charity. She’s a performer who’s interested in intimate methodologies. She’s a tutor. She does sensual poetry performances as part of The Crimson Word, The Bloody Poets and the Poetry Brothel London. Her next performance is this Thursday where she […]
< 1 mn read It’s goodbye to the everyday purpose slowly draining away like the morning mugs I rinse in the sink My Outlook suddenly feels much brighter appointments and appraisals recruitment and risk assessment scheduled for binning alongside brainstorming A final collection and card false smiles we will miss you so much do keep in touch don’t forget […]
< 1 mn read I buy a new bra laced with dahlias. Calvin Klein. Dress is Indian embroidered olive green silk. Shepherd’s Bush Market. Candelabras are cheaply ornate. Car boot. Oh Lord, teeth have been savaged. Dental hygienist. Like a slow moving volcano. My sixtieth. Pause for thoughts about gifts. Unwanted. Suggest pies on laps as they drive to […]
< 1 mn read Napoleon planted these pines, the soil is sandy but not a beach. I want to lie down, stare upwards like a child who hasn’t had enough clouds. The watery landscape keeps me upright. On cherche les oiseaux, mais on n’entend que les chants. The sky deceives itself. We talk (my French friends and I) about […]
