Selected Work

          by Neal Whitman










          Trial Run (to Donald Hall's late good, good dog)


          Bringing your hunting dog

          to heel in the field

          is a trial that will test

          will against will,

          each being a superior being.

          Outside In


          Shells
          and stones
          decorate
          the beach house deck --
          gifts from passers-by.
          Could they resist a peek
          into my poetry perch?
          Like a photograph torn in two
          found fluttering in my curb guttter,
          I too like to look from the outside in.

          It Took Fifty Years


          I was 5. We sat
          in a big room in front of a big picture.
          Big people talked and sang.
          Two big men and two big women.
          I could not stop looking
          at The Pretty One.
          Mommy and me left the movie house and went home.
          I felt funny.
          My tummy felt, well, I didnŐt know what it felt.
          I did not eat much dinner that night or next.
          I moped around our house for days and days.

          Now I am 55. We sit
          in Symphony Hall, front row, center.
          I cannot stop looking at her.
          She sings with the orchestra,
          the grand piano a prop
          to hold her up. She needs it.
          I wish she could lean on me.
          My wife and I go back stage.

            No, no visitors please. Miss Clooney is tired.

          On our way out, a friend in the Orchestra tells us,

            Come back. Shess resting on the landing.

            Of course she will want to meet you.

          There she is, on the landing.
          We come closer. Unsure.
            Miss Clooney, Hi.

            I'm the one who sent flowers and a note.

            You were the first woman I fell in love with

            after my mother.

          She stands, opens her arms.
            Come here. Let me give you a kiss.
          I step forward.
          She leans on me.

          Every December since, a card
          will be on display. The Pretty Woman on a stool, trimming the tree,

            Merry "White Christmas" Little Friend!
          Signed,
            Your second love, Rosemay Clooney

          Neal Whitman lives in Pacific Grove, CA, and is a volunteer docent in nearby Carmel at Robinson Jeffers Tor House. Toodles around town in white hatchback with personalized auto plate, PG POET, in customized frame, "Poetic License." 30 poems in 13 journals! A miracle considering the numbers. Amicus poeticae. (September 09)