Another Year, Another Poem: Poems 2020

By Frank P Gay

After four months of self quarantine, I find that I have already written enough for a normal one and a half to two year period. Since ‘GOOD’ poetry books are, by some definitions, slim, I had no choice but to start in on a new volume. It is a simple demand of the art to which we artists must bow.

Also, I am curious as to how the rest of the year will go, productivity-wise, as some of my friends would say. I have noticed that the injunction I started with, Get off the Somber, has drifted a bit. It is also a chance to see if I can get back to upbeat adjustments. At least, part of the time.

This volume is a combination of things. I intended to use my writing to try to keep an upbest attitude on the world. Sometimes it worked, other times my attitude sagged a bit. Mainly, it helped me see the world in a somewhat better light. It contains a variety of poetic forms because I find different types of poems fun and a challenge. Mainly, I hope that some will find them enjoyable, which, in my school of thought, isa good reason for reading poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664189638

Frank P Gay

Frank P Gay was born in Denoya, Oklahoma in 1925 and spent his first six years there on the Osage Indian Reservation. This was followed considerable movement around the country before going into the Army in 1943. This resulted in visits to Europe, the Philippines, and Japan. Time at Indiana University and the University of California, Berkeley, led to a Ph. D. in Chemistry and a career in research at the DuPont company in Wilmington, Del. ending as a Research Fellow. Desultory poetry writing over the years increased with the death of my wife, Jane ten Broeck in 1998 and has continued to date.

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Copyright © 2021 by Frank P Gay.

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/11/2021

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Contents

The Eve of What?

Did you see that old bum, mama?

An Epitaph

With few apologies to Fitzgerald and Omar would not know it

Winter Fantasy

Revenge

Is There a Sonnet Here?

Ye Gods

Words, Words, Words

Happy Valentine

Hold on, There

?

Musing

C’est la Vie

Scared? Not Me!

Birds

Spring

Growing Old

Here I Am

Star light

Home Alone

Resolution in Times of the Plague

Daydreams

Who’s that Knocking?

Surprise!

Waste Papers

Rules for Quarantine

Poor Frank’s Words of Wisdom

Cogito ergo Quid

Restless

Stay At Home

The Stay at Home Blues

Oh Dear!

Keep Busy

On White Meat Stew

Ahead

It Was Just One of Those Days

Haiku

Pensees

To Pogo

I.

Easter in Durance Vile

Haiku

Plague Days

The Future Look?

Haiku

Gloria

Communion

Pondering

Thoughts

Cinquaine

Idle Thoughts

Musings

I Wonder as I Wander

Welcome May

I

Epicures

I.

Imagine That

Guess Who Wants You

I’m Trying!

Just Wondrin’

The Enemy

I’d Rather Do It Myself

I

Is This What Godot Was About?

Philosopy?

If I Only Knew

A Poet’s Lament

A Plague on Plagues

A Thing so Deep

Hmmmm Again

Little Bits

Limerick

Nonsense

I.

The Good Old Days

It Seems to Me

A Litany of Woe

Variations on a Lockdown Theme

Miserere

Deep Thoughts

Hmmm once more

Alternative last verse

Ol’ Rockin’ Chair’s Got Me

Take That, Father Time

Just Do It

Who? Me?

Summer Rain

Goals

Inspiration

Limericks

I Sometimes Wonder

A Poet’s Lament

You Want to Write?

Quarantine

Don’t Tell Me

Obscurity

Last Words

Postscript

For Linda Jackson after 43 Years

Ah, So

I live in a retirement community. When the plague came in (aka ‘pandemic’) we went into lockdown, isolation, quarantine, whatever euphemism you like, I decided that I needed some attitude adjustment. It is easy for your thoughts to turn a little black when normal activities are curtailed. I decided to try and keep my poetry writing as upbeat as I could. Sometimes it worked, others, not so well. The following poems are a result – with the really bad ones deleted out of a sense of kindness.

The Eve of What?

So here I am as old as dirt

And many parts are stiff or hurt

My steps are slow and awkward too.

Should I retire into a yurt?

At ninety-five I might not fit

So I’ll just wait, get used to it

Or maybe it will go away.

I fear Ill fall if I don’t sit.

I know the things that people say,

Like, good old age is wisdom’s day

But that’s by folks who’ve not been here.

I’m stuck with it for come what may.

In future lives, if I am clever,

I’ll pick a form that’s young forever

And not go through with this again

But as for now, it’s now or never.