I don't think I've ever heard of anyone (save a person who worked for someone else at a job they didn't especially like and finally retires) who said that their "life's work" is finished. That is especially true of poets, writers, artists, musicians.

A singer or ballerina may retire when they feel that they've reached an age when their physical resources are no longer up to what they should be. But even then, they frequently turn to teaching, or take up some other aspect of their art, such as Beverly Sills, who, when she retired from singing, became general manager of New York City Opera.

But poets, writers, and visual artists usually keep right on going until they shuffle off this mortal coil. Many such artists don't really feel they've hit their stride until they reach "a certain age" and have a great deal of memories and experience to draw upon.

And in the case of people who retire from jobs they worked at for income rather than pleasure and fulfillment, many feel that now that they have the time, their real life's work is about to begin.

Don Firth