For a Friend at 90

FOUNDATIONAL WELL-BEING

            for Chet at 90

            To Time it never seems that he is brave,

            To set himself against the peaks of snow

                        Robert Frost

How it happened we sat that day

at table, and you happened to mention

you were still skiing at 80, I'll call

grace, not luck, for in further listening

there always seemed to belong

to what is brave, and not adventure,

a man I would like to know.

Those long skis for jumping

on your fence can be misleading--

towards achievement, away from character

which roots itself where Time

can't see or understand. We sat.

You said something of trains

and North Dakota. Chet,

you're out there with the stars,

and what you've held, you kept.

Jim

16 November 2019