Age
My age fallen away like white swaddling Floats in the middle distance, becomes An inhabited cloud. I bend closer, discern A lighted tenement scuttling with voices. O you tall game I tired myself with joining! Now I wade through you like knee-level weeds, And they attend me, dear translucent bergs: Silence and space. By now so much has flown From the nest here of my head that I needs must turn To know what prints I leave, whether of feet, Or spoor of pads, or a bird’s adept splay.
Age - meaning Summary
Age as Distant Landscape
The speaker describes growing older as a distancing of former self into a floating, inhabited cloud. Former vigorous pursuits become a "tall game" seen from afar, while the present self moves more slowly through life amid silence and space. The poem ends with a quiet, practical anxiety about legacy: the speaker bends to inspect the marks left behind, wondering whether aging leaves clear footprints, faint traces, or subtle, birdlike impressions.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.