The former US Poet Laureate contemplates life, death, and the view from his window in these "alternately lyrical and laugh-out-loud funny" essays (New York Times). His entire life, Donald Hall dedicated himself to the written word, putting together a storied career as a poet, essayist, and memoirist. Here, in the "unknown, unanticipated galaxy" of very old age, his essays startle, move, and delight. In Essays After Eighty, Hall ruminates on his past: "thirty was terrifying, forty I never noticed because I was drunk, fifty was best with a total change of life, sixty extended the bliss of fifty ... " He also addresses his present: "When I turned eighty and rubbed testosterone on my chest, my beard roared like a lion and gained four inches. " Most memorably, Hall writes about his enduring love affair with his ancestral Eagle Pond Farm and with the writing life that sustains him every day: "Yesterday my first nap was at 9:30 a. m. , but when I awoke I wrote again. " "Alluring, inspirational hominess ... Essays After Eighty is a treasure ... balancing frankness about losses with humor and gratitude. "--Washington Post "A fine book of remembering all sorts of things past, Essays After Eighty is to be treasured. "--Boston Globe