Poetry has followed Susan for most of her life, beginning with a high school English teacher who wrote on one of her essays that she had the soul of a poet. Decades later that voice is going strong at Arbor Terrace Mountainside, where Susan recently sat down with Engagement Coordinator Kathleen for an episode of The Golden Gang podcast.
A Brooklyn girl raised by her grandmother and a schoolteacher mother, Susan married at 20 and today counts four daughters and four granddaughters, several of whom write poetry themselves. In the episode, she reads two of her originals, "I Can't Get Out of Bed," a rapid-fire catalog of excuses to skip work, and "Old Age Is Not for Sissies," which she calls almost autobiographical. Both find the comedy in things people usually whisper about.
Asked what has surprised her about growing older, Susan said the real change was learning to speak up, because as a young woman she watched what she said and now she says what she thinks. Her hope for listeners is that they focus on the fun and keep a sense of humor about the changes that come. Listen to the full episode to hear her read both poems in her own voice.
Meta description: On The Golden Gang podcast, Arbor Terrace Mountainside resident Susan reads two original poems and explains why humor helps with growing older.