The Other Side of The Moon: Selected Poems from 2000-2012

By Dr. Allan Mohl

Dr. Mohl's poems are based on various observations, feelings, and life experiences. His poems reflect an interest in politics, music, science, modern day angst, health and human behavior. Dr. Mohl sees poetry as a word painting of life and the times in which we live. These poems express our hopes, fears, and frailties.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lime Press LLC
• Release date: Oct 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953584526

Dr. Allan Mohl

Dr. Mohl is a licensed clinical social worker who has a Ph. D in health and human services. He has an office in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Dr. Mohl is a poet, musician and a psychotherapist who has written hundred of poems, many of which have appeared in various anthologies and on the internet under Poetry.com. Dr. Mohl is a member of poetry nation and the Hudson River Writers Center located in Westchester, New York. In 2009, Dr. Mohl was inducted into the Westchester County Senior Citizen Hall of Fame, in 2017 through 2018, he was a recipient of the Albert Nelson Marcus Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Mohl is married and lives with his wife in Ossining, New York. He has three adult children and six grandchildren.

Book preview

Acknowledgements

I wish to give special thanks to Renée Gaines for her

help in editing and typing my poems. Without her assistance,

The Other Side of the Moon: Selected Poems from 2000-2012

would not have evolved.

Contents

Acknowledgements

A Synthesis of Music and Poetry at the Apollo

The Eternal Rhythm of Surf on Sand

The Struggle to Learn

The Veterans’ Home

A Brief Sermon

Do You Remember George Sanders?

Seeger

Remembering Michael

Welcome to the New Millennium

America Was Born in Violence

A 9/11 Vignette

Fragments of a Lost Culture

Indifference

A Painting by Picasso

Some Thoughts on St. Petersburg, Russia

Living in a Goldfish Bowl

Politkovskaya

There Is Something About Middle America

All the Lonely People

A Visit to the Berkshires

Images

Road Kill

The Madness Continues

Life Goes On

A Visit with the Dalai Lama

To Stay in the Moment

Hitting the Iceberg

The Lamentation of a Neurotic

Earthquake in Gujarat

Food for the Rich

A Father-Son Relationship

Birth and Death:

A Never-Ending Process

If Death Must Arrive

Reflection on Old Age

Reflections on the Ultimate Journey

The Obsession

A Tribute to Taylor and King

To Abort the Journey

Surrounded by Ghosts

A Message of Hope

Loss of Mattie Stepanek

The Last Act

Memoriam to Janice Joplin

A Rare Moment in Time and Space

Reflection on Time

A Suicide at Ground Zero

War Without End

Ode to the Gulf-2010

Despair

Pearl Harbor and Beyond

Tulsa, Oklahoma-1921

The End of a Dream

Reflections on a Film

The Tap Dancer

The Ticking Clock

The Quest

The God Father

The Need to Take Revenge

The Illusion

Adagio and the Armageddon Call

Writer’s Block

Staying in the Now

What Will Be Our Legacy from the Year 2007?

The Past and the Future

Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

A Synthesis of Music and Poetry at the Apollo

On a stage within the great historic Apollo theatre,

a black vocalist sings a Langston Hughes poem arranged for music.

Its first line is What happens to a dream deferred?

And there is a black saxophone guy

who really knows how to blow that thing,

while the vocalist really knows how to sing.

And the stage is dark except for the white light

that spotlights the vocalist and the guy who plays the sax

while the mostly white audience sits really quiet and uptight.

And the combo is awesome and the music is cool.

But remember this is the Apollo

and great moments have been the rule.

In contrast to the lines, "What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore–and then run?"

Many dreams and icons have evolved

within those faded walls of silver and gold

where the music and voices were usually bold.

While outside those theatre walls,

the inequities of race have continued to unfold.

The