STILL WATERS
Forsythe Park, Savannah
None but another old man
would guess that the gentleman
shuffling ‘round the park
on his weathered wooden cane
is listening to Smokey Robinson
plead ooh baby baby
through Bluetooth hearing aids
and remembering tender dances
shared with young girls
on soft Sinatra nights
so many years ago.
– Joseph Neely, Feb. 2025
I’m fond of this poem; it’s short but evocative. It’s brand new so I’m still considering minor adjustments; for example, in line 6 does Smokey cry or plead ooh baby baby? Your input would be considered and appreciated. (UPDATE: the votes are in; ‘plead’ it is. I agree, and so return line 6 to its original wording.)
I really like the term “soft Sinatra nights” in line 10, and hope you agree. I originally wrote “soft summer nights” but couldn’t get past the fact that Frank Sinatra used those exact words in ‘It Was a Very Good Year’ (When I waUs seventeen/it was a very good year./It was a very good year for small town girls/and soft summer nights). I wanted to give ‘Ol Blue Eyes credit, but “Sinatra’s soft summer nights” was too much for the poem; hence, “soft Sinatra nights.” It’s a beautiful song; you can listen to it on YouTube here. I’ll likely post more from Savannah soon; it’s so beautiful that one can’t help but be inspired . . . .and 80 degrees in February is downright intoxicating for this Michigander.
Please flip back to any recent post if you are interested in information regarding the purchase of my book, SLOW RIVERS, Poems from My Sixties (ISBN 979-8-218-43822-7). In a nutshell, ask your local bookseller to order SLOW RIVERS or purchase it online through bookshop.org.
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A New Poem Every So Often.
(No regular schedule right now; life gets in the way.)
Joseph Neely, all rights to original material reserved.
The Occasional Poem 
Plead is my vote Sent from my iPhone
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Sinatra did not write the song. I sorta get it, because I knew it way back when, but it is confusing for anybody else.
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Do not mix Smokey Robinson and Frank Sinatra. Utterly different musical styles and eras and connotations.
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Both songs were released in 1965, so not a different era. I had to look that up, of course, as I understand the point you are trying to make, a point with which I disagree. As the old man looks back nostalgically over his youth, he encounters both times when he was pleading “ooh baby baby” and times of tender dances with young girls on soft Sinatra nights. The larger point is that still waters run deep. We see an old man hobbling about on a cane with no way of knowing what goes on inside his mind. He doesn’t see himself as the world does. He sees – with a sad fondness, if there is such a thing – the days of his youth.
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How true, Joe! Especially the part about listening to music over your Bluetooth hearing aids – I do that all the time, never even giving a second thought to whether or not my taste in music offends the crowd around me!
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Yes, I still forget that no one can hear it but me.
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