As soon as I stopped caring about
impressing readers my poetry was
all about writing for me and it was
as it should always be. Poet.

I'm an old poet with a young heart
pleading for an honest appraisal.
Is my poetry worth the time to read?
Do I matter now? Did I ever?
That is the bigger question.
I know the answer. Nothing lasts.
Shakespeare and Yeats and God will
someday be lost to time's cruelty.

Bury truth in the backyard in
the shade of the Deceit tree.
Be careful not to disturb the
skeletons in the closet.
All families have secrets.
Forget the abortions.
Change the wedding date so
she arrived 9 months later.
Uncle Ed never killed a man
and overdosed in a crack house.

We said "I do" before clocks ticked.
That was a time when broads like her
still existed thank all the gods! She
loved with the biggest heart and ******
with the most abandon and breathed fire
that scorched you to a cinder even though
she never would. We danced on tables in
bars long since gone. We partied with the
Fitzgeralds and Hemingway and entertained
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris
when it glowed as bright as noon at midnight.
We died in the fierce light with no regrets.

a poem by Howard Nemerov

A Primer of the Daily Round

A peels an apple, while B kneels to God,
C telephones to D, who has a hand
On E’s knee, F coughs, G turns up the sod
For H’s grave, I do not understand
But J is bringing one clay pigeon down
While K brings down a nightstick on L’s head,
And M takes mustard, N drives to town,
O goes to bed with P, and Q drops dead,
R lies to S, but happens to be heard
By T, who tells U not to fire V
For having to give W the word
That X is now deceiving Y with Z,
Who happens, just now to remember A
Peeling an apple somewhere far away.

The popes of poetry demand it.
No matter the structure and
rhythm or rhyme or Howl
from the bleachers the
popular kids get noticed.
We just write poetry.

Susan had the house and
child support and alimony.
Rick had a young love and
a condo and bills that left
him short of breath and
missing old comforts.
He lost his hair and then
his mind and died alone.