There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive.
quote by Jessamyn West
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Europe to me is young people trying to appear middle-aged and middle-aged people trying to appear young.
quote by Mike Myers
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Forever Saying Goodbye
we are forever saying goodbye
goodbye, goodbye, goodbye let me repeat
the child who has grown into a young man
would remain a fond memory, like how we remember
a childhood friend who was always at our side
the young man who has matured into the middle aged
will remember him as someone who have looked
for so many things in thirty years only to get
only some things; a trail of disappointments to
spice up his memory as he bade the young man goodbye
the middle aged suddenly discovers that he
is not as young anymore, his eyes, his legs,
his hair, his stamina have all started to nag to him
that they are not as before, taking duties
promptly and without shortcoming; they have
all taken a turn for the the middle aged
who will soon teach his children happiness is the
best medicine of all and that life should be
focussed on finding that without hurting anyone
the octogenarian takes over the the steps
of the middled age and they have slowed
so much sometimes he cannot even do it
without the help of someone or a stick
the octogenarian who will tell us that a life
of charity is better than one lived alone;
an all important lesson from the silver haired who will
soon bid goodbye to himself, the world and us all
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Earth Rolls On
Who is the young man, who stands at the dawn of the day,
And views the world with a frivolous outlook, and with ease,
He dreams, new dreams, his life years from decay,
As if the earth were his, and he had only himself to please.
Who is the middle aged man, who stands at the dawn of the day,
And views the world, with an eye of someone so unbelieving,
With stress and pressures, which weigh him down like clay,
He finds the earth to be a place that's so unforgiving.
Who is the old man, who stands at the dawn of the day,
And views the world, with a subdued and despondent air,
He's seen life come and go, and from him now, it's speeding away,
And the earth that he remembers, is no longer fair, no longer there.
But the earth rolls on,
And our lifespan, too, will soon be gone.
The young, the middle aged and the old.
Their stories told.
poem by Ernestine Northover
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Tea Shop
The girl in the tea shop
Is not so beautiful as she was,
The August has worn against her.
She does not get up the stairs so eagerly;
Yes, she also will turn middle-aged,
And the glow of youth that she spread about us
As she brought us our muffins
Will be spread about us no longer.
She also will turn middle-aged.
poem by Ezra Pound
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.
quote by C.S. Lewis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Eyes of Age
I’m looking through the eyes of an aged man
who has lived his life the best he can.
I’ve made countless mistakes before arriving here,
suffered broken hearts and shed many a tear.
And now I see young men doing exactly the same,
making similar mistakes and suffering pain.
If only they would ask, I could save so much grief,
but their silly pride is beyond belief.
Most young people see me as a burned out old man;
but I can see as a youngster can.
I look at middle aged men and consider myself the same,
but I forget about my looks, my shape, and ageing pain.
When I see a young lady, who takes the time to smile at me,
I straighten my back, breathe in, and smile anxiously,
but then I realise I’m not a young man, so dream on old fool,
she’s only being polite and you’re beginning to drool.
Some days I’m full of energy and think I could sprint for a mile,
but after a ten paces I have to rest and catch my breath for a while.
When you become old it’s a fact that your eyes and body don’t unite,
and your memory and mind are held up by the brains delay to ignite.
I’m not ready for aging and I don’t want to get used to being old,
okay, so I’ve had a new hip, a new knee, and I’m slightly bald,
maybe I am a bit deaf, and my eyesight isn’t what it should be,
oh yes, I almost forgot - I have a lousy memory.
poem by Orlando Belo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
quote by Oscar Wilde
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Bittersweet is age
In the end, we all die but once.
Most die but one time and one time alone.
But what tempers the sweetness of living long
Is the bitter sweetness
That the aged wearily carry to their grave.
The fact is, that the aged will have died
Many times over in their life
While the young and the innocent
…have to die only once…
poem by David Whalen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring off, but which the middle-aged man can't.
quote by John Updike
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Men who are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
quote by Walter Lippmann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
People that are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
quote by Walter Lippmann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Youth Always Wins
Generational change
wins always
because the old and middle-aged
develop a clouded lens
and can' t see Now
because focused on Yesterday.
Is good advice for Youth Now
consist of lessons learned yesterday,
when yesterday no longer exists?
Can we tell the Young that yesterday
is relevant
when all yesterday is dead and gone?
How can we council that the old views
and yesterday make sense
when conditions have so changed
have been rent,
mangled beyond
recognition?
Young people
as they must
absorb much from us,
but their capacities
and needs are so much greater
than our meager philosophies present.
For the first time in history
young people are smarter
than their elders who
barely know how a computer works.
First time in history the young
are wiser than the septuagenarians.
Generations are additive
and while all youth stands upon
our shoulders
it also means they can see further
than we
planted on the ground below.
We see ground level and the past-
they see above the clouds to that future-ness;
and we complain
because we know in our Youth
we did
exactly
the same thing
against our parents
who always thought
they too,
knew best.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Auschwitz
Once I overheard a middle-aged Jewish woman
talking to her Rabbi
telling him of how she and a friend
travelled to Auschwitz
and finding so much sadness there
decided to do something happy
as if to spite the sadness.
So they danced on the railway line
leading to that camp of death-
two middle-aged women holding each other.
This to me say so much about the human spirit.
If I could I would paint a picture.
Will someone paint it for me please?
poem by Gillian Commerford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.
quote by John Ciardi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Neglected Gardens
Weeds
from seeds
sown by youthful folly
breed
and feed)
middle-aged melancholy.
poem by Brian Taylor
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In Silence No More
Aged 1
Aged 2
Aged 3
Aged 4
At 5 my life changed forever more,
Aged 6
Aged 7
Aged 8
Aged 9
By 10 he’d touched me a thousand times,
Aged 41
42
43
44
But now I’m not suffering in silence,
In silence anymore,
For now I’m chatting and talking,
Not crawling I’m walking,
Even though he’s still stalking,
I’m not suffering in silence,
Suffering in silence,
I’m not suffering in silence,
In silence no more.
poem by Darren Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Real Life
Suzanne divorced her husband
She got the keys and the car and the home
But her friends were really his friens
No one stops by to see her much any more
So one night, she goes back down to
The old haunts
That once upon a time were her own
She didnt know nobody out there no
More
And the whole experience just made her
Feel so old
She says
I want to live the real life
I want to life my life close to the bone
Just because im middle-aged that
Dont mean
I want to sit around my house and watch tv
I want the real life
I want to live the real life
Jackson jackson was a good kid
He had four years of college
And a bachelors degree
Started workin, when he was 21
Got fed up and quit
When he was 43
He said, my whole life
Ive done, what I supposed to do
Now id like to maybe do something
For myself
And just as soon, I figure out what
That is
You can bet your live
Im gonna give it hell
He says
I want to live the real life
I want to life my life close to the bone
Just because im middle-aged that
Dont mean
I want to sit around my house and watch tv
I want the real life
I want to live the real life
I guess, it dont matter, how old you
Are
Or how old one lives to be
I guess, it boils down to what we did
With our lives
And how we deal with our own
Destinies
But something happens
When you reach a certain age
Particularly to to those ones, that are
Young at heart
Its a lonely proposition when you
Realize
That theres less days in front of the
Horse
Than riding in the back of this cart
I say
I want to live the real life
I want to life my life close to the bone
Just because im middle-aged that
Dont mean
I want to sit around my house and watch tv
I want the real life
I want to live the real life.
song performed by by John Mellencamp
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Younger players in this music often turn out to be middle aged; it is not a young music.
quote by Derek Bailey
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle-aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles.
quote by Don Marquis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
quote by Theodore Roosevelt
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!