Mona Gould

“ And even Death must have been a little shamed
At his eagerness!
"NostAglia"
What's "nostAglia", Mums?
"NostAglia ... ?" Oh, you mean
"Nostalgia", Son, let me see ...
How can I explain it to you, this "nostAglia",
(As good a word for it as any!)
Well ... Darling ...
"NostAglia", is that funny pit-of-the-tummy feeling
You get
Going down in elevators
Only you're not in an elevator -
It just comes.
Everything sort of goes away from you,
And you feel a little scared
And a lot lonely ... ”

“ Immortality
Release
I Run With the Fox
Better to be proud and hunted
Than to ride with the Pink Coats.
Better than the smell of warm blood after a quick kill, Bitter and bright the scent of hidden fern. ”

“ And one blue heron lifts himself with terrible beauty
Into the evening.
I cannot say why Islands do this to me.
I only know that putting out into the open gap
Bound for the Mainland
Is like loosing hands with one you love
Too much!
Photogenic
It must be nice to be photogenic;
To not have to get in to a panic
When you "see the birdie".
To just sit there . . . smug . . . ”

“ Gather within the crescent of her arms
The core of his alarms.
Man is a lonely one.
He builds himself a shelter from the night,
Turns himself inward where the lamplight falls,
Takes comfort in the stoutness of four walls. ”

“ I like the huddle and power I have in a small town" . . .
Then, (with a black frown)
"I prefer to be a big toad in a little puddle"!
The only thing that struck you
As you watched his steam-roller tactics down his narrow road
He'd somehow . . . begun to resemble his own model . . .
The big toad!
War Weary
Some ladies love to sleep alone
In solitary state
Chaste . . . unruffled and serene:
This . . . I . . . hate! ”

“ Saturday Night, Chatelaine, Montreal C.A.A. Year Books,
Canadian Forum., Gossip, Montrealer, Canadian Magazine,
Woman's Illustrated (London, Eng. ) , Woman's Journal (London, Eng.) .
Foreword
We all of us know that the ordinary every-day man and woman, the people we brush against in street cars, the people who read the funnies - the people who are like us - are capable of the profoundest depths of feeling and the noblest aspirations. ”

“ The artist enables us to see this ordinary man and woman in the moments when they are not ordinary, without any of this sense of intrusion. I think Mona Gould, in most of the verses in this volume, has been exceptionally successful in this kind of revelation, and I think Canada needs it. A number of these verses have been published in "Saturday Night" during the term of my editorship, and I am very glad that they are now to have a more permanent resting place. ”

“ You always want to hit them with a hammer!
But when your own puts on this spring display
You almost always wonder "Should we spay?" ...
Or "Shall we add another to our flock
And just have kittens, all around the clock"?
O isn't it a thing both true and queer
That one cat's "calling" falling on the ear
Is troublesome . . . ”

“ Half-somnolent in the cloud of cigarette smoke,
Are seen lounging at precarious angles
Against the nearest tobacconist's windows.
Teen-age boys and girls link arms, and
Roller-skate on the paved streets,
Shoulders touching ”

“ All rights reserved - no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper. ”

“ Foreward The two Monas, whose joint name has confused Gossip readers these long years, have finally come out on the Canadian scene as the two distinct people they are - Mona Gould, the poet, whose verse has charmed and intrigued, and Mona Clark, the editor, who brought this verse to Gossip's pages. ”

“ Has to "stay put" for a while, yet ...
Oh, it takes quite a while,
This business of making a man
Makeshift-whole, again!
(Wonderful how a guy can pick up a book
in his teeth —
Smoke a cigarette, even — with a little help!) ”

“ Acknowledgment is made to Saturday Night, Gossip, Chatelaine, Canadian Poetry Magazine, Canadian Home Journal and The Montrealer, in whose pages many of these poems have appeared.
Contents
I Run With the Fox
Memory Sharp
Gift Shop Window
Sire
Communion
Loud Silence
He Will Not Go Unremembered
Bagpipes Skirl in Heaven
How'd Ya Do!
Big Day
Prayer, In a Hospital
So Fair a Season
Spring Comes to a Small Town
For a Brown Dog
Right out of Pickwick
Man is a Lonely One
This Bitter Brew
It Was Tall in the Forest
Child ... ”