GROW OLD ALONG WITH ME: The Poetry of Aging from Old Dog Documentaries on Vimeo.

Julie Harris, Richard Kiley, Hume Cronyn, and James Earl Jones are a delight as they recite poetry about aging and talk about what getting old is like for them. Artists Frederick and Claske Franck, opera singer Shirley Verrett, ninety-year-old photographer Leni Sonnenfeld, and Buddhist nun Pema Chodron see aging as a creative process that carries with it an opportunity for giving birth in later years to one’s full humanity.

With spirit and insight, these beloved artists and teachers show us it is possible to integrate all of the past–areas that have gone unfulfilled, failures as well as successes. They show us how to adapt to the changes taking place in our bodies, in our relationships, and in the circumstances of our lives. Dealing with loneliness, accepting the reality of death, they give us encouragement to face our fears. Letting go of the past, settling into life as it is, they help us embrace the people we have become. We learn just how creative this journey through old age can be, as we are inspired to make that critical shift from life-as-a-burden to life-as-a-joy.

Includes the poetry of Browning, Tennyson, Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Archibald MacLeish, Mark Strand, Elizabeth Bishop, Muriel Rukeyser, Mary Oliver, and other contemporary poets.

Awards

Cine Golden Eagle Award

Broadcasts

One-hour program originally broadcast on PBS stations
Special PBS pledge program