Robert Frost and Me (Like a Chimpanzee)

"Diabolically intelligent"
Is how I read my cousin Robert Frost
Was and how he looked like a chimpanzee
In his great age (one thing by two things meant)
Mortal yet meant for immortality

I would buy my cousin's books if they cost
Less but can get them from the library
"Diabolically intelligent"
Sounds a wonderful way to me to be
(Even if he looked like a chimpanzee)

If younger cousin still an older guy
But lovely ladies love my poetry
And this has always been enough for me

I am celibate not quite knowing why
Which seems more mere habit than anything
Holding me back from having one last fling

Yet I wonder if Aristotle flung
Or old Homer having sung ever swung:
What of the love-life of the man of mind?

I want to come to life before it goes
Like Yeats I bloom within my heart a rose
But roses like hearts must be left behind

The one thing I can take will be this soul
When I must return (as we all must learn)
My piece out of the puzzle of the whole

+Steven Curtis Lance



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