Retirement Poems--you will find a wide selection of retirement poems at Poem4Today.
Retirement poems are an excellent way for you to celebrate all that someone has contributed and to join them in their anticipation of the future ahead.
For more great retirement ideas, visit our retirement links.
Some poems on retirement for you, this one is particularly humorous -
Warning
Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells and run my stick along the public railings and make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain and pick the flowers in other people's gardens and learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat and eat three pounds of sausages at a go or only bread and pickles for a week and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry and pay our rent and not swear in the street and set a good example for the children. We must have friends to dinner and read the papers. But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
And something a little more inspirational:-
TERMINUS Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is time to be old, To take in sail:-- The god of bounds, Who sets to seas a shore, Came to me in his fatal round, And said: 'No more! No farther spread Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root. Fancy departs: no more invent, Contract thy firmament To compass of a tent. There's not enough for this and that, Make thy option which of two; Economize the failing river, Not the less revere the Giver, Leave the many and hold the few. … As the bird trims her to the gale, I trim myself to the storm of time, I man the rudder, reef the sail, Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime: 'Lowly faithful, banish fear, Right onward drive unharmed; The port, well worth the cruise, is near, And every wave is charmed.'
If you're giving the retirement speech, these simple, meaningful words can be a great way of wishing them well in their new life:-
May you have enough happiness to keep you happy. Enough trials to keep you strong. Enough sorrow to keep you human. Enough hope to keep you thoughtful. Enough failure to keep you humble. Enough success to keep you eager. Enough friends to give you comfort. Enough faith and courage in yourself to banish depression. Enough wealth to meet your daily needs. Enough determination to make each day a better day than yesterday.
For more resources, free poems and ideas for retirement, visit Special Moments. For teacher retirement poems, visit our teacher poe
Do you have any suggestions for additions to this page, please email us with your ideas for a poem for a retiree.