Useful Feeling: Poems - Softcover

This book offers the perceptions and feelings of a poet who's seventy-four years old, an age he calls "the dark side of seventy, on the slope side to nothing." It is "a realm of shifting tenses," made rich by a lifetime of memories, especially memories of hard work and romance; a present to endure and enjoy, thanks to a girlfriend, walks by the harbor, writing poetry, and red wine; and the future to accept. The "useful feeling" is a recurring theme in all the tenses. "I've sought the useful feeling all my life," he tells us, and now writing is how he fulfills his duty. In Useful Feeling, Dean Olson tells us a lot about nature, especially birds and the sea. He tells us about courtship and relationship. He tells us about living and about dying.