Simple poems
Don't look back at poems written in youth. Very painful. They seemed so good back then.

I've been writing poetry for 24 years. Fortunately, I don't write that many. I'd like to avoid the common trap for amateurs of generating more poems than meaningful thoughts. One should strive for a parity.

Sadly, despite my sparse output, I'm also guilty of this. My poems may be few, but my thoughts worth writing a poem about seem to be fewer still.

There is one hint of progress. I wrote almost all of my poems in the same book of ruled, blank pages. This created a rough chronology of them which I have reread several times over the years. As I said -- painful. But when looking at them, I try very hard not to flinch and to be as honest as I can. Although there are poems throughout that should have been strangled in the crib, there is a trend that shows glacially slow improvement. This trend only starts at the end of the first decade of writing them, but at least it continues.

I'm trying to salvage a few of my early poems with drastic rewriting. So far this is the only one worth recording here.



Follow the golden mean, golden golden mean
This simple rule of life, so easy and so light
Aurea mediocritas, golden golden mean

Aristotle found it once for every girl and boy
Not fish nor foul nor good red meat
But our hair will shine, and our feet won?t stink

So follow the golden mean my son
And you?ll be half a man