LIVING BETWEEN RAGE AND NOSTALGIA


Rage and nostalgia are seated together,
while I at their table write yet one more page
of poetry, feeling quite sure that bad weather
won't spoil the experience, for I'll never age.

Thanks be, I am luck to be here like Dannie,
nostalgic at times, although sometimes I rage,
but here is the fact that I find most uncanny:
by only connecting we both can engage.

Benjamin Ivry ("Dannie Abse Brings Jewish Twist to Wales, " Forward,4/27/12) writes about the WelshJewish octogenarian poet, Dannie Abse, whom the Queen has recently honored with a CBE. At the end of his article Ivry cites Dannie's poem, "Valediction, " which inspired this poem:

In this exile people call old age
I live between nostalgia and rage.
This is the land of fools and fear.
Thanks be. I'm lucky to be here.


5/5/12 #10,099

gershon hepner

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/living-between-rage-and-nostalgia/