As we get older, many of us return to youthful memories of poems once significant to us. Outside their association with our youth, we may wonder what significance they have to us now. There were other poems we’ve met along the way as well: some held no appeal while others were forgotten. And there were others we never had the opportunity to meet.

This selection hopes to go beyond the experience of meeting old friends and on top opening the door to new ones — poems that might relate more significantly to our current lives. Originally titled “Personal Poems for Later Years,” this collection gestures towards poems that ask us to slow down some we can consider them more deeply than before — no matter our age.

Each time we read a good poem it brings with it a different meaning. Meeting a poem with an open ear, be it old friend or new, we can find its deeper significance.