CONVICTIONS OF MY THOUGHTS AND DEEDS
 
Convictions of my thoughts and deeds
are vapors, not substantial things.
There are no clouds that hold the breeze,
they toss about on errant winds.
                        Look yonder!  See!
                        Huck Finn it be!
From shore to land and land to shore
An unsure raft that knows no moor.
 
And here my grades before me sit.
I bow my head before the glow.
The teachers tell me how I did.
What other way is there to know
                        in youthful days
                        when all my gaze
was fixèd on my teachers bold?
Why couldn’t I have been born old? 
 
But here I sit an agèd man.
What are the colors of the world?
And here the colors of Gauguin.
Ignored, then praised, and now unfurled
a bold new style
but for a while.
Is all rejoinder and retort?
Speak up old man!  Give your report!

 
This poem first appeared on the Society of Classical Poets website, December 2023.