2011 Golden Pen Award
Living Poet
Thomas Fair

Thomas Fair, 68, disabled from a stroke, now lives in a nursing home in Green Brook, New Jersey. He wrote this poem in longhand and Dorothy Feola typed and submitted it to us. The former glazier and CB radio enthusiast, who has six children and ten grandchildren, has neither been published nor received awards of recognition for his poetry until now. Through this Golden Pen Award we hope to encourage development of spokespoets like Thomas Fair for all disabled persons to whom poetry is therapeutic and can open windows through which non-disabled people see life from the viewpoints of persons not able to live independently. His astrological sign is Cancer.

REMINISCE

Each week as I enter the Garden Room
My thoughts soar, my heart pumps fast;
You can’t tell by looking the pleasure I feel.
It’s really something special; it’s really for real.

Eight to ten seats with wheels on their chairs,
Each face expectant, devoid of worldly cares,
Each face expecting a familiar line back into their past,
Giving them a sign to visit days past

And also be kind,
For all memories are not beautiful, as we’d like them to be;
But we dwell on only the good times.
Take a bundle full, and you’ll see
The smiling faces, the sparkling eyes
All in anticipation of a forthcoming tale--
Laughter and glee, as we knew it would be.

No, we cannot go back and relive the past.
Yes, we can relive parts of our life,
And share the best with the rest.
And last, but not least, let us not
Forget the wonderful young lady
Who takes us back each week
To the times we love, to the memories we seek

To relive once again, although only in voice,
Our minds roam back as we make the choice
For a moment or two to escape into the past
Reliving again times that last
Forever and ever until our time’s at an end.
With each episode, we thank you, our friend,
For bringing us together to remember days past
And for keeping us going so our memories will last.