A Poem for the Old Man

By John Wieners 1934–2002 John Wieners

God love you

Dana my lover

lost in the horde

on this Friday night,

500 men are moving up

& down from the bath

room to the bar.

Remove this desire

from the man I love.

Who has opened

the savagery

of the sea to me.

See to it that

his wants are filled

on California street

Bestow on him lar-

gesse that allows him

peace in his loins.

Leave him not

to the moths.

Make him out a lion

so that all who see him

hero worship his

thick chest as I did

moving my mouth

over his back bringing

our hearts to heights

I never hike over

anymore.

Let blond hair burn

on the back of his

neck, let no ache

screw his face

up in pain, his soul

is so hooked.

Not heroin.

Rather fix these

hundred men as his

lovers & lift him

with the enormous bale

of their desire.

6.20.58

Source: Selected Poems, 1958-1984 (Black Sparrow Books, 1986)

Biography

Born in Boston, poet John Wieners received a BA from Boston College and studied at Black Mountain College with Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and Robert Duncan. He later followed Olson, his mentor, to SUNY Buffalo. A Beat poet and member of the San Francisco Renaissance, Wieners was also an antiwar and gay rights activist. His poetry combines candid accounts of sexual and drug-related experimentation with jazz-influenced . . .

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