“To love, to create, to express, to live”- a typology of aging poems by older men

Poetry writing can serve as a means for personal expression of feelings, thoughts, and attitudes toward various subjects, as well as for a deeper understanding of lived experiences and identity. The present study examined the aging experiences of men over the age of 70 (N = 15), living in a continuing care retirement community in Israel, as reflected in the poems they wrote. The poems were analyzed using latent content analysis, resulting in a typology of three types of poems: a) Preparation for end-of-life poems, b) Positive aging poems, and c) Nostalgic poems. This typology can be understood in the context of gerontological theories, suggesting that the poems express emotional processes in old age: awareness of limited time, striving for ‘ego integrity’, and processes of assimilation and accommodation to achieve a sense of inner consistency throughout the life span. The study highlights the contribution of bibliotherapy, which allows older men to express a variety of identities and provides them with opportunities for negotiation, (re-)creation of identities, and agency.