Coda

the necessary factor is hope

hope for an intelligent conversation

for time with family, for time when you are not

alone — the young poets are sometimes

an inspiration, they tell the hard truths of

their lives, other times they fixate on sex

or self-justification, as if we old poets don’t —

are the old humbler? we feel less hope

yet still strive for a job well done, the plants

watered because rain has not come

I attended a young-poet-led seminar

about an old poet, thirty people came,

young read some of the old-poet's poem

then tossed out learned associations

terms like citational, syntax, lyric — not

what I’d hoped, these academic terms

failed to explore or honor the work —

to end the poem a coda repeats

loveless sleepless — no one seemed to know

she lives alone, the husband she found

dead — if you are old, loveless sleepless

coda, repeat, is something you know