My grandfather Sol, who opened Bay Bloor Radio over 65 years ago, was also a poet. I’m delighted to be able to share this part of Sol's legacy with you.

 

Sol's books "Of the Bird, Flying" and "Nicholas Tickle Us" are available for sale both in-store and online.  

Here are some of my favourites.

- Danu Mandlsohn

---

Unpublished Poems

If You’re Different

If you’re different, don’t worry or care,

Be round, when the whole world is square,

For the great fun of you

Is there’s just one of you,

And that makes you precious and rare.

Be prepared to stand up and to fight,

For the fact that there’s black and there’s white,

Though they’re ten million strong,

They can all be quite wrong,

And you all alone, can be right.

When you’re holding the truth hold on tight,

Protect it with all of your might,

When they all march astray,

On two dumb feet of clay,

Be the only one left, who is right.

So be different, don’t worry or care,

Be round, when the whole world is square,

For the great fun of you

Is there’s just one of you,

And that makes you precious and rare.

The Plus Factor

What have you added to life today,

And what have you merely taken away?

Have you loosed the smallest word of praise,

To penetrate the blacks and greys?

Have you shared a joy, have you calmed a fear,

Have you held your tongue and opened your ear?

Have you raised a window, unlocked a door,

Have you taken less, and given more?

Have you touched a hand, have you patted a back,

Have you helped a lost soul find the track?

Have you shared some food, have you poured some wine,

Have you put at your door a welcome sign?

What have you added to life today,

And what have you merely taken away?

 

 

 

Of the Bird, Flying

When life has limitation,

Life a tied wing,

In exultation

I can still sing,

Not of the cord, tying,

But of the bird, flying.

Till Death Do Us Part

Any polygamy plan

Will never excite me or wow me,

I’m just a one woman man :

That’s all my wife will allow me.

High Flyer

A veteran of flights

These days am I,

Who afraid of heights,

Have learned to fly.

And fancy free

Through waves I skim,

Who afraid of sea,

Have learned to swim.

In similar fashion,

As hawk turned dove,

Who afraid of passion,

Have learned to love.

I take the breath,

Affirmative,

And afraid of death,

I learn to live. 

Peppie

‘Every marriage is best in tune,

When the wife is May and the husband June.’

My marriage started out that way,

I was June and my wife was May.

Now the years have made me wise and sober,

A pure rendition of October,

Ready to sit before fire and ember,

With a gracious wife who is now September.

But she won’t stay put, she is full of starch,

She’s May and April – going on March!

The Cautious Businessman

He never acts

Till he gets the facts,

Then he checks again

For the pure and the plain,

After which he’ll test

From hell to breakfast,

Search cover to cover

Some fault to discover.

He wants the certainty

Of the fait accompli,

And he won’t jump

Till he feels the plain plump

Of the whole naked rump.

He checks designs 

Right up to the nines,

And will only employ

The real Mccoy,

No ifs or buts

From soup to nuts,

The absolute positive

Primary causative,

The primitive actual

Whole hog factual,

The full flotilla

The whole megilla.

He mixes them all

In a great big stew,

Then asks his wife

What he should do. 

Obstinate Aubrey

Obstinate Aubrey

Won’t be led,

Stiff is his neck,

And stiff his head.

He won’t give an inch,

Just sits on the fence,

In the face of facts

And common sense.

He always stands pat,

Won’t listen to reason,

Perverse and unyielding

Whatever the season.

Hard-bitten, inflexible,

Firm in his mind,

Fanatic, dogmatic,

Pigheaded and blind.

A bull-headed donkey,

A shortsighted ass,

Bigoted, contrary,

Sullen and crass.

We just don’t get along,

Unto death we will fight,

Because he’s always wrong,

And I’m always right. 

Poor Memory

I know a young fellow named Paul

Who cannot remember at all,

His memory’s so rotten

He has even forgotten

What it is that he cannot recall.

Disappointment

I once got my wish

And gave mermaids a whirl,

But the wrong half was fish,

And the wrong half was girl. 

Hold High Your Head

Hold high your head amid this mortal muck,

The others need not know your feet are stuck. 

---

Fishing

You can’t catch a fish

With a wish,

You have to use bait,

………….and wait.

Edward Jones

A skinny man,

named Edward Jones,

Was nothing but

a bag of bones.

He filled himself 

with ice cream cones,

And now he’s known

as Cold Bones Jones.

Music

Sometimes music makes me laugh,

Sometimes it makes me cry,

Sometimes it stretches me

like a giraffe,

Or squashes me down like a fly.

But one thing sure it always does,

It never leaves me the way I was.

Sometimes music makes me run,

Sometimes it leaves me seated,

Sometimes it makes me feel

I have won,

Sometimes I feel defeated,

But one thing sure it always does,

It never leaves me the way I was.

Sometimes music makes me do,

Sometimes it lets me think,

Sometimes I’m captain,

and all of the crew,

Sometimes a poet with pen and ink.

But one thing sure it always does,

It never leaves me the way I was.