This Year Is Too Much: Poems 2020

By Frank P Gay

This volume is a combination of things. I intended to use my writing to try to keep an upbeat 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, is a good reason for reading poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664191037

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.

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Rev. date: 08/19/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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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 upbeat 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, is a good reason for reading poetry.

Contents

On Resigning as an Instructor.

Once Upon a Time

Summertime

It’s Just One of Those Days

MMMMM

A Conversation of One

Chewing Old Cuds

Seasons

Springtime Summer

Summer’s Summer

Autumn’s Summer

Winter’s Summer

Things That Go ’Round in My Head

Strangers

Meanders

Cavemen

A Political Dittty

Point of View

Street Scene

Day Dreams

Sijo

Saturday Afternoon

Miserere

Sightless Scenes

Musing

Equinox

Sijo

Watch Your Step

Meditations on the Fall

Just Relax

Do You Remember?

Status

Wind Blown

Old Friends

Kittens

The Covid Blues

Limericks

Sonnet

Shepherd’s Crooks

Remembering

Uses of Rhythm

Losses

Reminiscing

Woe is Us

If

Alas

Birthday Villanelle fir Helen

Write a Funny Poem

Systems

Variation on ‘The Bird of Time"

Sijo

Peasant Labor

Happy, Happy B’day

Limerick

Recipes

Little Old Man

An Unsent Birthday poem

Birthday Greeting, Unsent

Ideas for a Poem – or Anything Else

On Breaking Two Fingers in a Fall

Sing

Hmmm, I See

Six word Poems?

In Absentia?

Oh, Just the Other Day

Happy Thanksgivings Past

In Memory of?

Growing Old, Old

December Walk

Happy Winter Solstice