Still Poor

Jeff has opened this collection of his poetry with this:

"This begins a new volume of poetry
as yet unnamed and obviously incomplete,
poems being added as they are finished,
with no thought yet as to arrangement.
However, as will be noted, most are:"


The first section consists of poems written between February 1966 and December 1969. He sub titles this section as "Still Poor". Perhaps that was a comment on his bank account rather than his life. I know Jeff was married in 1966, you can see the photo at the head of this post. The poems he wrote between 1966 and 1969 that are in the section "Still Poor" are posted here, so scroll down and read them. Due to the vagaries of the blog software the last written appears first. You can scroll right down and read the first ones written in chronological order by reading down, then scrolling back up to the next post. Annoying, I know.

Otherwise just read them as they run and remember the poet was getting younger as you read! Maybe deconstructing the work that way might lend new insight? There is one poem not included with the rest below which I have included here. I posted this on the main Jeff Lassen page, it is my favourite of all the poems written that I have read, so far. There is still an enormous amount of work for me to trawl through and organize so I might end up with several favourites before I'm through!


HE, SHE, IT and THEY


HE loved SHE, SHE loved HE;
Both were happy as can be.
IT was a love so very grand;
HE offered SHE a wedding band.

Then THEY began to speak -
IT was over in a week.

HE and SHE are now apart,
Each one guarding an injured heart.
THEY, it seems, are satisfied:
THEY succeeded at what THEY tried.

Jul 1969


I would hazard a guess that the marriage of 1966 came to something of an end in mid 1969, wouldn't you agree? Enjoy 'Still Poor'.