Old Love

“Old Love” is a short poem (22 lines) by the Chicana poet Pat Mora, originally published in her 2010 collection Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love. The speaker in the poem is a teenager who observes his uncle mourning the death of his 87-year-old wife. The uncle’s grief is so intense and unrestrained that the speaker—his niece or nephew—is astounded and slightly embarrassed. In response, the uncle shares with the speaker a touching memory of something his wife used to do every New Year’s Eve at midnight. Since the racial or ethnic identities of these characters are not identified, the poem is not as culturally specific as many other, especially early, poems by Pat Mora. She is known as an important poetic voice in Chicano/Chicana literature. The words “Chicano” (masculine) and “Chicana” (feminine), which can be used as both nouns and adjectives, refer to Americans of Mexican descent. Mora has written a great deal about people with hybrid identities, who have crossed the border between Mexico and the United States or live in its vicinity. Her later work, however, has expanded to include more universal themes and emotions, such as the ones in “Old Love,” which convey the power of love to sustain a life partnership over the span of 60 years and the tragedy of losing the person with whom one shared such a loyal and enduring relationship.

Poet Biography

Pat Mora was born in 1942 in El Paso, Texas, where her grandparents had moved from Northern Mexico. She grew up in a bilingual family, so she was equally immersed in English and Spanish from an early age. Her literary work reflects her comfort in and love for both languages. Mora has worked as a teacher, college administrator, and museum director. She is also a popular speaker, promoting literacy, reading, creativity, and inclusivity. In 1996, she founded Children’s Day, Book Day (El día de los niños, El día de los libros), a yearlong initiative to bring the joy of reading into the lives of all children, which culminates in a nationwide yearly celebration on April 30th. Mora is a recipient of numerous awards, two honorary doctorates, and a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is also an honorary member of the American Library Association.

Mora has published dozens of books, including poetry, nonfiction, and books for children. Her early collections of poems—Chants (1984) and Borders (1986)—focus on the experiences of Americans of Mexican descent (Chicanos and Chicanas). She broadened her scope in later work, but the value of Mexican heritage and peculiarities of bicultural existence remain her central themes, which she explores in Agua Santa/Holy Water (1997), Adobe Odes (2006), Encantado: Desert Monologues (2018), and other books of poetry. In 1997, she published House of Houses, an exploration of her family history and a celebration of Chicana historical experience and aesthetic sensibility. Her other popular works of nonfiction include Nepantla: Essays from the Land of the Middle (1993) and Zing! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students (2010). Mora has also written over 30 children’s books, many of them bilingual. One of the most recent is Bookjoy, Wordjoy (2018), which reflects her lifelong passion for advocating literacy and joy of reading. She believes that motivating children and their families to be readers is essential for American democracy.

Poem Text

Pat Mora. “Old Love.” 2010. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Old Love” describes an old man’s grief after the death of his wife of 60 years. It is presented from the perspective of the man’s niece or nephew, who is shocked and slightly embarrassed by their uncle’s uncharacteristically raw emotions. The speaker compares their uncle to an Old Testament prophet raising his hands toward heavens in pain and disbelief. The uncle repeats “’I’ve lost my girl,’ over and over” (Line 5), and the speaker observes him not “know[ing] what to say” (Line 7), perhaps surprised by the intensity of his mourning for someone who “was eighty-seven” (Line 11) when she died. The speaker also compares the uncle to “a tree alone at night” (Line 13). The uncle tells the speaker that “Every midnight on New Year’s Eve” (Line 15) the aunt would look at him with “tears in her eyes” (Line 19), knowing that “One day, we’d kiss good-bye” (Line 22).