These are poems about life and time, and the people who have to cope with those sometimes dubious blessings. It starts with a selection from 'The Songs of the Old Man', some comic, some puzzled, some angry. The book's central section, 'Some Oldies', is a collection of mostly short poems in which we meet a variety of individuals, all of them verging on ancient, and discover how they are coping, or not coping, with life. In the 'Bookish' section, this opinionated author reflects on literature, art, and anything else that takes his fancy.