Playful poet explores carefree life
At age 77, poet Hubert Meeker (photographed in his James Bay home) has discovered his inner child. His first book, 18 wheels – poems that move, is written from a place of youthful exuberance.
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At 77 years old, Hubert Meeker has entered a sort of “second childhood.”
He experiences the freedom of riding his bicycle or venturing to the beach only to get lost in its beauty.
“Sometimes Fran and I go out in the woods and just get lost and see what happens,” he said of his longtime partner.
Meeker can lose himself just walking to the corner store.
“I can get lost in somebody’s flowers in their front garden, or a bird or a squirrel fooling around.”
Kids do that, he said. They lose track of time and get lost in things.
From that child-like place, Meeker wrote his first book, 18 wheels – poems that move as a way to illustrate that old age isn’t a death sentence.
“I remember when my father got old, he got very young and enthusiastic and lovey-dovey towards my mother,” he said.
The doctors assumed his father had a stroke and medicated him.
“There’s a lot of fear surrounding this process of aging, when some of the deeper emotional things start to come out again as they did when we were children,” Meeker said. “It’s not something you have to fear.”
He’s amazed how much he’s enjoying this part of his life. He thought he’d be “dried up” and incapable of much by the time he was in his 70s.
But he’s discovered just the opposite. The 21 poems in the book explore different vehicles and how they shape our lives, including baby strollers, tricycles, bikes, cars, planes and trains and the wheelchair that takes us to the end.
In one poem, Meeker writes that once our lives are set in motion, motion becomes the place we live from. We wonder if we’re on the right track or if we’ll arrive at our destination.
Chances are, the average six-year-old has better things to do than seek answers for such questions.
18 wheels is available from James Bay Coffee and Books, 143 Menzies St.
lweighton@vicnews.com
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