A Rollicking Old-Age Song: New Poems

By Lewis C. Mainzer

This collection, written since Two Wives Ago: Selected Poems, includes poems on Isaac and strong-willed Abraham, King Lear and his troublesome daughters, the mysteries of choir practice, the historical prominence of male decapitation, a boy shot by the cops, searching the lake for a missing boy, a hippo in the bed (with the poets wife?), old age and decay, death-timely, too soon, too late, sweet love in youth and in old age, lilac blossoms in an outhouse, a gardeners hopes and joys and failures, elephant dung, a skunk, a quite day at the frog pond, the history and esthetics of tattooing, a Japanese woodblock print moon, a Robert Frost tool, an E.M. Forster story, and a message which may have gone astray.

Cover engraving by J.G. Posada

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479735136

Lewis C. Mainzer

Lewis C. Mainzer is author of Two Wives Ago: Selected Poems (2009), A Rollicking Old-Age Song: New Poems (2012), works in political science, and essays in the Massachusetts Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Yale Review. Professor of political science emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is former editor of Polity, the journal of the Northeastern Political Science Association.

Book preview

A Rollicking

Old-Age Song

New Poems

Lewis C. Mainzer

Copyright © 2012 by Lewis C. Mainzer.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2012919428

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4797-3512-9

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4797-3511-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4797-3513-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

122139

Contents

I

When People Come Together

The Search at Pine Island Lake

Isaac and Abraham

Lear’s Lesson

The Departure of Good Neighbors

Choir Practice

Earth-Bound, Sky-Bound

The Last Sideshow Fat Man

Lonely Man’s Lament

Modesty

Uneasy Lies the Head

War Dreams

The Cops Shot the Boy

The Motorcyclists

Summertime Joys

A Young Man’s Oath of Love

She Comes, a Touch of Sunshine

Volunteers

Look!

A Hippo in the Bed

An Old Couple

Boundaries

II

What Has Been Foretold?

Annie’s Teddy Bear

What Has Been Foretold?

Three Forty-Five

Sweeping Snow

Dinner Time, Retirement Home

Reward for a Life Well-Lived

Life as a Work of Art

Sound within a Silence

Shadow Land

A Too-Long Day

Too Soon

A Test of Strength

Firing Squad

Oblivion

A Rollicking Old-Age Song

III

Nature Observed

Spring Rebirth

A Change of Skin

Oak and Maple

Leaf Counter

Light in the Darkness

Hudson River Lights

Lilacs in the Outhouse

A Gardener’s Song

The Failed Gardener

Sacrifice of Garden Catalogs

A Skunk in the Glow of Death

Death of a Blue Jay

Elephant Dung

The Nectar Sipper

The Frog Pond

IV

Sights, Sounds, and Words

The Tattoo Center of Western Massachusetts

A Woodblock Print Moon

Train Sounds

August Morning

Tax-Time Conversation

Next

A Published Poet

The Robert Frost Tool

The Truth of a Story: E.M.F.

A Message

also by Lewis C. Mainzer

Two Wives Ago: Selected Poems

for Becky & Sarah

to whom I bequeath a world of words

I

When People Come Together

The Search at Pine Island Lake

I rowed the old tub of a boat,

which for once required no bailing,

round the bright lake fringes, peering

deep into summer clear waters

searching but praying for failure

—where is the missing boy hidden?

Schools of small fish paused to drink

sandy bottom shone up with the sun

weeds danced gently in ripples of water

but no sign of a water-borne body.

The parents were wading hip-deep

torn into shreds with cold fear,

a couple went swimming out further

while we two took to the boat,

back and forth, back and forth looking

on a discovery voyage

but not a sign of the boy

—O give us good speed and keen sight

let us find him while there is hope!

When did he go and where headed

had he adventure in mind

while we were eating light lunch

engaging in light grown-up talk

not watching the only child present.

Had no one seen him depart,

did he head for the lake or the woods?

How had we failed to observe

this one precious child in our midst?

God spare him, God spare his poor parents!

Then we heard a sharp cry from his father,

saw a youngster returning our stare

as he silently walked from the woods

all peaceful from strolling alone

enjoying the quiet of nature.

What a gentle and self-contained lad,

calmly bringing a blessing to elders.

No harm had been done, no effect

—except that years later I shudder,

chilled at a distant recall

and a loss that we feared had occurred.

No harm except for a knife

inserted into the heart

and never cleanly withdrawn.

Isaac and Abraham

Isaac, have you yet forgiven Abraham

that crazed knife-wielding old man

the idol-wrecker determined now to kill his beloved son,

Sarah’s pride, not born