A Retirement Poem for Dick Barnes

Translating, editing, doing research;
Doing his job and doing kindnesses,
Acts of devotion, though outside of church;
Cherishing everything, which is all there is;
Year after year to almost no one’s knowledge,
Devising verses to give strangers pleasure,
In the obscurity of Pomona College
Himself not knowing he’s a national treasure;
One of the roughs, but noble in courtesy,
Suffering gladly fool and anaesthete;
A friend to young, fresh folk, and friend to me, — 
Let him withdraw now to his high retreat,
Some leafy and sun-dappled bower, from where
He may gaze out upon the passing fair.

© Robert Mezey