George Stanley : Three poems

 

 

Rimed

Though rarely bold,
I didn't fit the mold.

Though often I was told,
I still did not uphold.

I was not of their fold.

Though I never sold
out, I own little gold.

And now I'm old,
and it's cold.

 

                     Vancouver BC, 27 December 2021, 8 below.

 

 

In a dream
 

Let love
not the clock

Let love
in her little room

not her larger
room, with the clock

 

 

 

A Girl

I took a girl out to the ball game
('took' means asked her out on a date).
I 'picked her up' at her house
in the Ingleside, and we 'took'
the 'K" and the '22' to Seals Stadium. 

It was early in the season, cold and overcast.
(Portland, I think, were the visitors.)
There weren't many fans in the stands.
We sat halfway up, down the 1B line.
I didn't know what to say to her.

 

 

 

 

A native of San Francisco, George Stanley [photo credit: Cath Morris] has lived in BC since 1971. He has published ten books of poetry, the most recent are After Desire (2013), North of California St. (2014), and West Broadway (with George Bowering’s Some End) (2018), all from New Star Books of Vancouver, and a recent chapbook, Love Is Not an Algorithm (2020), from above/ground press.