25 poets from British Columbia and beyond unite with­in these covers to explore the lofty topic of Ageing­its impacts and its implications. Curated by Ian Cognito and Pat Smekal, this anthology presents poems which explore ageing through humour and com passion as the authors examine their own ageing and that of near ones, tapping into both the universal and the personal for their reflections. 
 
The poets in Old Bones & Battered Bookends contemplate one of the most profound experiences we hold in common­getting older. From the days when our progress is chroni­cled on doorframes in inches of celebration to a growing reluctance to mark yet another milestone, we age in shared, and yet deeply personal, sometimes solitary ways. Our need for companionship on this journey is as old as the bones of humanity. Each of its way stations is as newly surprising to us as the discovery of another aching joint, a new wrinkle or grey hair, the declining vision that alters how we see our­selves and how others may see us. Our appreciation for get­ting older, like all journeys, is as much about what we pass through as what we attend to. - from the Foreword by Anne Marie Carson