Older, Wiser, Shorter: The Truth and Humor of Life after 65: Poems

by Jane Seskin

Overview

OWS is an intimate collection of 89 poems from Jane Seskin, a working psychotherapist and author. Seskin, authentic, funny, insightful, quirky and heartfelt, acknowledges the disappointments, physical vulnerability and emotional loss taking place in her senior years. She is able to discover within herself a solid sense of power, resilience and new-found joys through her struggles to acknowledge, accommodate and accept her aging. Seskin's ability to make the very personal universal, will resonate with readers seeking to discover new ways to honor the past, celebrate the present and welcome the future. A Reading Guide to the poems will inspire further reflection and discussion for book and women's groups.

This New Revised Edition contains 26 additional poems!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931290982
Publisher:	Tallfellow Press
Publication date:	08/21/2024
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	104
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Jane Seskin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker & the author of 13 books. She’s also written nonfiction articles and poetry online and for national magazines and journals (20 poems published in Cosmopolitan Magazine, 4 poems in Woman’s Day). 18 of her posts have been published in the Metropolitan Diary column in the New York Times.
Jane has been a writer-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and Noepe Center For Literary Arts. For 20 years she counseled survivors at the Crime Victims Treatment Center in New York. She currently maintains a private psychotherapy practice with adult clients.

Editorial Reviews

"Even though I'm not a fan of poetry, I found Jane Seskin's poems to be a delight. They hit home." — Jane Brody, Personal Health columnist, NY Times

"Candid, funny, and best of all inspiring, the poems in Jane Seskin's Older Wiser Shorter throw open a window on aging. Suddenly a breeze of resilience sails through.I learned from Seskin's poems: they become like mentors for the strange adventure of late-life living. Kindness infuses them." — Molly Peacock, author of The Analyst

"Jane Seskin writes with keen insight and eyes open to the inadvertent miracles in our everyday." — Arthur Sze, author of Compass Rose

"Jane Seskin has lost height, years, love and a youthful abandon but in doing so, she has gained a deep understanding of what it really means to be alive. Her poetry is honest, heartbreaking, witty and uplifting. I was moved by her rich sensibilities and in the end, genuinely inspired by her love of life." — Carol Waldman, MS, Gerontology, Executive Director Glen Cove Senior Center

"Jane Seskin not only dares to be seen as older, wiser, and shorter but through humor, honesty and wit reveals the travails and triumphs of having ‘crossed over’ to old age. You don’t need to be at a late stage of life to appreciate and learn from Seskin’s energetic collection of poems." — Justen Ahren, Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate and author of A Strange Catechism

"Jane Seskin’s poems – funny and elegiac, wispy and dense – take us into her world and shed new light on our own. An important book for older women and those who care for and about them." — Ann Burack-Weiss, PhD, LCSW, author of The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman’s Life

"This is the bible for late-life living!" — Reader

"I sat down to read a couple of poems and got up an hour and a half later. Had dinner and sat down to read it again. Thank you. It was a workout." — Reader

"We always begin our monthly book club meeting by reading and discussing 2 poems from Older, Wiser, Shorter." — Reader

“I've given the book to 5 of my therapy clients. They use the poems for discussion, to trigger memory and to deal with their own aging." — Reader

"I use your Reading Guide in a Senior Center where I lead a writing group." — Reader

"You prove poetry is within my reach. You’ve made it accessible." — Reader

"Every time I walk out the door I say your line 'I expect to be greeted with kindness.' It’s become a daily ritual. I feel changed by this one small action." — Reader

"I did not have children. When I read the poem 'The Assumption' I knew exactly what you were talking about. And I sobbed in recognition." — Reader

"The poems have engendered an explosion of memories, of written work that I would not have expected. It’s been a wonderful cathartic experience for all of us." — Reader

"I helped my 83-year old friend write her eulogy after reading the poem 'The Reading Script.' I never would have thought to do this. It helped my friend feel more in control of her life. Me too!" — Reader

"I was at a conference in Boston, looked around and for the first time noted all the gray-haired women, me included, in the audience. The realization was startling, I was one of them and like your poem "Forecast' knew at that moment I had "crossed over." — Reader

"This book is the best present to give to others! Flat and easy to mail. Funny and thoughtful and smart and sad. All the emotions of getting older." — Reader

"I read it all in one sitting and was truly captivated by her voice, her observations, and her use of humor in approaching the challenges (and surprises) of aging. I just loved it and will be looking to this as my go-to gift for the older adults in my life!" -Agebuzz

From the Publisher