Almost Poems - Summer: An Old Man's Observations and Recollections

By Gerry Miller

A Young Man Old

What man grows old without ever looking back?
His past grows larger every time the sun sets:
more to see, to remember, to think back upon...
perhaps more to regret, but less time to do so.

This book is a bit like a memoir, but not exactly.
A few pages of it may seem like a daily journal.
Or it could be an old man's late attempt at poetry,
but some will say it's not really poetry either.

Perhaps for one old man these pages are just
some of his journey's accumulated footprints,
moments that still echo in the hallway of his life;
people - past and present; places - here and gone.

Some pages will be silent sailboats on a glassy bay;
others, calves cavorting in spring upon a grassy field
A shadowbox full of forgettable words of one old man
will never transfix his entire life. But they're a start...

About the author:

Gerry Miller was born Gerry Battles ages ago in Des Moines, Iowa, began life on the family farm near Ames, spent his younger years in eastern Iowa in Muscatine along the muddy Mississippi River, and has grown into an old man in Iowa City. A retired non-academic from the University of Iowa, he now is enjoying his quiet years seeking, gathering and polishing some of the smaller moments he may have missed as his life sped by and listening for lyrics he never heard above the harmonies of his soundtrack.
He has published poems in a variety of journals such as the Lyric, the Neovictorian/Cochlea, the Blue Unicorn and the Edge City Review. These current efforts draw from moments of his life as he sees and remembers it now as an old man. There are recollections from his early years on the family's Heritage Farm in central Iowa. There are also moments from the same farm, but from days and nights spent there much more recently. There are memories from his early years in Muscatine. And there are observations from his current life as a retiree who spends part of his days haunting malls, bookstores, and coffee shops seeking out quiet places to look back.

Footprints from an old man's Summer...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BQZWTN9G
• ISBN13: 9798832207063
• Release Date: December 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"