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# ‘The Older I Get…’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-older-i-get/
- Published: 2007-05-17T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:03:55.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Don Weill • Running Press*

*By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview*

Henri Frederic Amiel, a Swiss philosopher, has said “To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”

Don Weill has been able to make that chapter easier for us. Everyone is going to age. This collection of poems celebrates the process.

It has been said that age is a matter of the mind. The baby boomer generation — those born between 1946 and1964 — have a saying, the current 60 is the new 40\. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter. Don Weill, born 1930, seems to agree with that philosophy. He seems to be facing aging with grace.

Mr. Weill states he was influenced by A. E. Houseman, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Francois Villon, and William Wordsworth. In the preface he shares where he slipped in a line or two from their poems. It really improves them.

The poems were written over a 40-year period of time yet they have the freshness of today. If I were looking for a small gift to give to my friends soon approaching middle age this would be the book I would get them. It brings a smile and a sense of hope for the future.

The author uses three rhyme scans. There is the abcb, the aabb, the abab.

An example of the abcb scan is found in “Never Too Late:”

When old folks Find new romances, It restores one’s faith In second changes.

The aabb poems are his long ones so I will quote a portion of “Watching The Sun” to illustrate: When I first retired, I have to admit, I missed the old rat race, more than a bit. I’d cherished the teamwork, the goals and the feel Of triumph that comes after closing a deal. Back then it was pressure that kept me alive.

I knew only one business gear—overdrive.

The abab poem scan is seen in “I’d Like You To Meet”: I see him among all the others And ought to go over, I know. We two were both classmates and brothers A hundred or more years ago. We gravely vowed friendship eternal Through failure or fortune or fame And I would be fiercely fraternal Could I but remember his name.

The book contains line drawings by Linda Braucht.

I feel “The Older I Get…” is delightful and bright as well as uplifting. I enjoy the cheerful tone of the poems. I am sure that readers will feel the same way. The book has the sub title “Light Verse from a Senior Perspective” and this is exactly what it offers.

Don Weill has had poems published before in The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to name a few. He has another book of verse called “The Reluctant Investor and Other Light Verse.” With a background in journalism, he has been a reporter for the Long Island Star-Journal and has owned a small daily newspaper, The Somerset Star, in Somerville, New Jersey.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 17, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)