Image Of A Poet Poem by Roger Hudson

He plays it old this famous poet
His pose
His pace
His body language
His statements
All proclaim "I am an old man"

OK, not just that
"I am a nice old man with a lifetime's achievement behind me"
"I am a wise old man with over 40 years of poetry behind me"

But he is my age!

Do I come across like that?
Is there no young man inside that head
Still eager, still excited, still angry?
Or has that faded with the years
Recallable only by reading past poems in public?

Or was he never these things?

Does ill-health, overweight
Dictate this manner?
Or has he calculated that this
Is most appropriate image
Most readily acceptable
To his audience, his public?
Or do some people's thought patterns age with their body
So that they are old
Inside as well as out
Not merely going along
With what society urges
As how an old man should be
But living it?


Or am I denying
The things I don't really see about myself
From inside my head
The slower, huskier voice
The pauses for difficult memory recall
The bowed shoulders
The slower heavy-breathing walk
It's the younger man inside the head
That is the lie
The self-deception


But who am I kidding?
I have been alarmed at hearing my own voice on an answering machine
The throatiness, the heavy breathing, the long pauses and slowth
The slow walking uphill failing to keep pace with younger not so younger friends
The memory lapses
Own up
Its here it's you!
You're old too!

Berni - Not sure how to incorporate this or if it fits

The love poems that sound more like strong affection poems
The war poems proxy his dad or courtesy Homer
Heartfelt and effective none-the-less
Experience poems, appreciation poems
Skilled (bland) , elegant (but bland) ,
Full or knowledge of the craft of poetry (but bland, bland, bland)
Is this the best life can offer?