A Poetic Language of Ageing

Exploring the potential of poetry and poetic language as a means of conveying perspectives on later life, this book examines questions such as 'how can we understand ageing and later life?' and 'how can we capture the ambiguities and complexities that the experiences of growing old in time and place entail?' As poetic language illuminates, transfigures and enchants our being in the world, it also offers insights into the existential questions that are amplified as we age, including the vulnerabilities and losses that humble us and connect us. This volume suggests a path towards the poetics of ageing by means of presenting analyses of published poetry on ageing ranging from William Shakespeare to George Oppen; the use of reading and writing poetry among lay people in old age, including persons living with dementia; and the poetic nuances that emerge from other literary practices and contexts in relation to ageing - counting personal poetic reflections from many of the contributing authors.

Oddgeir Synnes is Professor of Health Humanities at the Centre for Diaconia and Professional Practice, VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway. Synnes has a master's degree in Nordic literature and a PhD in illness narratives and works with applying perspectives from the humanities to healthcare, both through practical projects and in research. His key areas of interest include cultural and narrative gerontology, creative writing (e.g., in cancer care, palliative care, and dementia care), literary representations of illness, and narrative inquiry. His most recent book is Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life (2020), co-edited with Bernike Pasveer and Ingunn Moser. Olga V. Lehmann, PhD, is a researcher, lecturer, and mental health activist. She is an associate professor in Psychology at the University of Stavanger and she has a private clinical practice. Her main areas of interest involve feelings and emotions, silence, communication, humanistic-existential psychology, grief therapeutic writing, grief and bereavement, poetic instants, and qualitative methods. She has published, among others, Poetry and Imagined Worlds (2017) and Deep Experiencing: Dialogues Within the Self (2017).

List of Contributors Foreword Gregory Orr Acknowledgements Introduction: A Poetic Language of Ageing Olga V. Lehmann and Oddgeir Synnes 1. The Mother of Beauty: Notes on the (Possible) Poetry of Dementia Mark Freeman 2. Poetry and Dementia: Imagining and Shaping More Just Futures Aagje Swinnen 3. Time and Dignity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Poetry Writing in Dementia Care Oddgeir Synnes, Eva Gjengedaland Målfrid Råheim 4. Growing Older with Haiku: What Haiku Offers to Japanese Expats in Denmark Kyoko Murakami 5. Poetry Lasts Forever: Case Study of a 100-year-old Brazilian Poet and His Daughter Ana Cecilia de Sousa Bastos 6. 'An Old Man Can Do Somewhat': Styles of Male Old Age in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 Arthur W. Frank 7. Virtuous Ageing as a Poetic Endeavour: Motivations to Write and Effects of Writing among Older Adults in Norway Olga V. Lehmann andSvend Brinkmann 8. The Poetics of Growing Old: Metaphoric Competence and the Philosophic Homework of Later Life William L. Randall 9. Poetry, Science, and a Science of Poetry: With an Illustration of Poetry and Ageing Steven R. Brown 10. Writing Lives Merete Mazzarella 11. Other Voices: George Oppen, Dementia, and the Echo of Lyric Alastair Morrison Index