Book of the Week: first clue

A self-published collection of wry, epigrammatic reflections on work, family, retirement, health and old age, by Frank Robinson. Frank was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1939, studied in Boston and the Netherlands, and has been an art historian, teacher, and museum director at Wellesley, Dartmouth, Williams, and Rhode Island School of Design. He became director of the Johnson Museum at Cornell in 1992. Frank has published several other books of poetry: Family Poems, 1972; First Impressions, 1973; Window Boxes Full of Snow, 2006; and Senior Moments, 2017. Frank’s haiku have also been widely anthologized.

Begin each day with a poem
And get it over with.
(With thanks to W.C Fields)

Growing old, dying, lousy weather —
Oh, Margaret, you deserve better.

On the beach —
I’m smarter than the waves,
smarter than the sand,
a genius compared to the sky,
so I’ll enjoy it while I can.

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

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Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF president THF president Jim Kacian, and are used with permission.