"Images of Aging" - Poems for National Elder Law Month

The purpose of this project is to acquaint members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) with how poets (those writing in English, primarily) have perceived old age and aging. The poems in this series were collected by me and distributed to NAELA members via the members' email list during the month of May 2005 and 2006. A list of the poems appears below.

Many poems that were distributed are marked as being protected by copyright. All such poems should not be printed out or stored in any permanent form without permission of the copyright holder. Should a more permanent form be desired, a reference is provided so that a book containing that poem may be purchased or checked out at a local library.

I am not a specialist in copyright law. To the best of my knowledge any poem not marked as being copyright-protected is public domain; in particular it was published 1922 or before, is 95 years since the date of first publication if originally published between 1923 and 1977, or is 70 years past the life of the author if created 1978 or later. Any errors with respect to copyright attribution are inadvertent and should be brought to my attention (at ttakacs@tn-elderlaw.com) immediately. None of the poems that were distributed to NAELA members is archived on this Web site.

In an effort to make the poems representative of a broader reach of poetry, copyright-protected poems are distributed in accordance with my interpretation of the fair use guidelines.

* Purpose: The use of the poem is entirely non-commercial with educational intent.
* Brevity: The poem is not intended to be archived in a permanent format (that is, the poem is distributed via email only).
* Spontaneity: The selection of the poems occurred in the weeks immediately preceding its use. This short timespan precludes the attainment of permission in a timely manner.
* Cumulative Effect: The poem is the only one by that poet appearing among the collection.
* Effect on Market: The selected poem is distributed via email only, and only to a self-selected group of individuals (a recipient must be a NAELA member). All selected poems have previously appeared in print and are readily available for purchase or through various public libraries. Reference is provided to aid the reader in locating such a copy. It is my hope that by acquainting NAELA members with what to some will be unfamiliar poems, distribution of these poems will stimulate the market for the poet's work, thereby benefiting the copyright holder.

By following these guidelines for these selections it is my intention to keep to the spirit of the United States copyright laws, and I believe I have done so. However, the final arbiter of fair use doctrine seems to be the courts, and I am not aware of any cases that definitively show whether or not I am correct in my beliefs. As such I can make no guarantee that my interpretation of fair use is correct, and any use of my interpretation of the guidelines is made at your own risk.

The Poems

Posted May 2005:
Carl Sandburg, "The Road and the End" and "To a Dead Man"
John Milton, "On His Blindness"
Czeslaw Milosz, "Late Ripeness"
D. H. Lawrence, "Piano"
Hayden Carruth, "Old Man Succumbing to Retrospection"
Dylan Thomas, "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London"
Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz"
Edward Hirsch, "Lay Back the Darkness"
Homer, The Iliad, excerpt from Book 24
Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son"
Charles Kingsley, "Young and Old"
Jim Powell, "The Seamstress"
John Keats, "Ode to Autumn"
Stanley Kunitz, "Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation"
Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Crossing the Bar"
"Psalm 39" from the New American Bible
Gwendolyn Brooks, "A Sunset of the City"
Margaret Walker, "Molly Means"
W. S. Merwin, "Yesterday"
T. S. Eliot, "Journey of the Magi"
Walt Whitman, "Halcyon Days"

Posted May 2006:
Mark Strand, "The Coming of Light"
John Prine, "Hello in There"
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 30"
Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess"
Allen Ginsberg, "To Aunt Rose"
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias"
Timothy Murphy, "Mentor"
Alexander Pope, "The Dying Christian to his Soul"
Robert Creeley, "Age"
Charles Wright, "Last Supper"