Author Description

Tracings is composed of 127 poems by Robert M. Simmons. The poems were written from his college days to his years of retirement, a span of over 50 years. He grew up in Providence, R.I. during the 1950's, worked as an academic librarian in Massachusetts for about 30 years, then retired and moved to central Virginia where he now lives. His choice of topics reflects his youth in an urban environment, his years in college, his life in a Bohemian area of Providence, his career as a professional in academia, and his retirement in rural Virginia. Topics covered include lyrical description, character studies, personal experiences, stages of life, climate change, the decline of civilization and much more. His poetry is distinguished by several notable features: his desire to keep up with the present, but also to keep in touch with tradition, and his endeavor to make his work comprehensible to literate readers. A poem is meaningless unless it can be understood.