Saturday, November 09, 2019
The Aged Poet Speaks (fun poem)
The Aged Poet Speaks
Now that I am ninety
I shall wear a veil and
long flowing garments
and carry a long cigarette holder
(though I no longer smoke)
and speak in a low Talulla Bankhead voice
and constantly scribble
in a little notebook
I carry with me at all times.
When my admirers crowd around
I shall demand silence
as I drop my pearls
of verse and wisdom
at their uncaring feet.
I will read favorite poems
on request, though at times
I wonder at the choice.
Later many will request my autograph
which I shall obligingly furnish
in my own indecipherable scrawl
along with a smirk
that passes for a smile.
At home I will relax
with a snack
and a bit of drink,
even though my physician
says no,
but I think,
what the hell,
you only live once.
My walls are adorned with
pictures of my loving fans,
many famous names
mostly now deceased,
several of whom were
my lovers,
though sometimes
these days
I get their names and sexes confused.
Then I will go to sleep in the bed
that Charlotte has prepared for me
getting ready for another day,
another public performance.
Dorothy Walters
November 6, 2019
There is a long tradition of mixing the serious with the less serious, often the comic. Shakespeare did it in his plays, T. S. Eliot did it with his poems on cats. In Greek myth, Baubo was an irreverent old woman who cheered up Demeter when she was mourning her lost daughter (Persephone) by reciting obscene passages.
Now that I am ninety
I shall wear a veil and
long flowing garments
and carry a long cigarette holder
(though I no longer smoke)
and speak in a low Talulla Bankhead voice
and constantly scribble
in a little notebook
I carry with me at all times.
When my admirers crowd around
I shall demand silence
as I drop my pearls
of verse and wisdom
at their uncaring feet.
I will read favorite poems
on request, though at times
I wonder at the choice.
Later many will request my autograph
which I shall obligingly furnish
in my own indecipherable scrawl
along with a smirk
that passes for a smile.
At home I will relax
with a snack
and a bit of drink,
even though my physician
says no,
but I think,
what the hell,
you only live once.
My walls are adorned with
pictures of my loving fans,
many famous names
mostly now deceased,
several of whom were
my lovers,
though sometimes
these days
I get their names and sexes confused.
Then I will go to sleep in the bed
that Charlotte has prepared for me
getting ready for another day,
another public performance.
Dorothy Walters
November 6, 2019
There is a long tradition of mixing the serious with the less serious, often the comic. Shakespeare did it in his plays, T. S. Eliot did it with his poems on cats. In Greek myth, Baubo was an irreverent old woman who cheered up Demeter when she was mourning her lost daughter (Persephone) by reciting obscene passages.
