"Soil" by Roger McGough (poetry reading)

Awareness of your own mortality is inversely proportional to how much life you think you have left. It eventually becomes an imposing presence lurking in the background. If you're lucky enough not to be ejected from this world prematurely , then eventually the youthful feeling of immortality will vanish. After that you will live with the constant awareness that you're going to die. It's the price you pay for consciousness.

What comes as a surprise is that being old is just a later stage in life than being young. When young you're not on a different path from the old - you're on the same path.

Youth thinks it has re-invented life. I particular it thinks it has re-invented sex. The truth is that young people aren't even good at sex - they haven't had enough practice. It causes them problems, they get little satisfaction out of it and they give little satisfaction to their partners. Young men think it's an Olympic athletic event - this a major mistake. Bigger, faster, harder? You'll never get another date.

Satisfying, loving sex comes in middle age, if you haven't screwed up your life beyond repair by then. Or even in old age, if you're fortunate. Young people think sex is shocking to old people. Why should it be? Every old lady and gent has had more sex than they have.

In fact the reverse is true. Old people aren't shocked that young people have sex, but the young are mightily shocked when they find out that older people do it. Healthy septuagenarians get more sex than teenagers.

When growing older we gradually discover that being "shocked" doesn't mean what we fondly thought it meant. It means something like, "You'll find out that sex doesn't make you any happier or smarter. And doing it with many partners doesn't make it any better or make you a better person. Promiscuity doesn't even make you a better performer: all you learn is bad habits and silly charades. Later in life you'll wish you had kept it in your trousers and waited for love. I'm not shocked by what you do, I'm sad because I can't do anything to help you..."

I'm feeling my own mortality, too. I've had most of the adventures I will ever have. The places I haven't visited I won't ever bother to visit. I don't expect to read many of the books I haven't read already. I can't see any good reason to ever buy another pair of shoes or a new tie. I don't even bother to find socks that match.

My plan is to wake up tomorrow and keep on inflicting my "wisdom" on you and telling you stuff I think you ought to know. That is what old men do, right?

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• Soil
• Roger
• McGough

[thissong4you]

Thank you for another beautiful reading.

I am saddened for you by your commentary. If you knew you had just one day left, would you just sit and wait for it to be over? At least go buy a pair of shoes and a new tie.

"It is the evening of the day

I sit and watch the children play

Doin' things I used to do

They think are new

I sit and watch

As tears go by " - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

[SpokenVerse]

@thissong4you Spoken like a true shopaholic. I'll tell you a secret. There is only one day left.

[thissong4you]

This is still one of my very favorite of your readings, Tom. And I'm still a cockeyed optimist.and a huge fan :0)

[thissong4you]

@SpokenVerse Actually, I'm not a shopaholic, just a cockeyed optimist determined to enjoy my one day left. I used your shoes and tie reference because it was shorter than your travel reference, but I strongly recommend travel to a long-pined-for destination to revitalize even your tired old bones. :0) Thanks for your reply. I am a huge fan.

[thissong4you]

I am grateful that "(your) plan is to wake up tomorrow and keep on inflicting (your) "wisdom" on (me) and telling (me) stuff (you) think I ought to know."

"For the merry-hearted boys make the best of old men." - from "The Bard of Armagh," an old Irish ballad.

[TheAmphitheatre]

Do not lose hold of your dreams or asprirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. - Henry David Thoreau

[TheAmphitheatre]

"My life has been the poem I would have writ,

But I could not both live and utter it." - Henry David Thoreau

[beaulieu4008]

"Most men lead lives of quiet desparation and go to the grave with the songs still in them." - Henry David Thoreau

[beaulieu4008]

Hi mate, thank you for posting these wonderful recites. I enjoy them. We are connected - our souls, regardless of who we - we feel and think and aspire to do great things. I also enjoy your side notes, this one in particular. I often wonder about what you've wondered for I can imagine myself at old age. I can also imagine myself back to when I was young. I have not lived the life you've lived, none of us do; but I hear the truth in your account, which are reflected in my own experiences.