By RENEE C. NELSON Herald Women’s Editor It is an innovative approadi for a 90-yearold man to publish a book of poems, many of them about old age – “especially,” as he says, “those aspects that are somewhat less than ‘golden.”‘ Lowry Nelson notes in the preface of his book, “Desert llide.” (which was also his first poem) that the poems “seem to reek with self pity, but perhaps they also speak for a few million other oldsters. While youth speaks of sunshine, age speaks of frost; Frost Carnuse in the sky remorseful the momlng after 1-ll: wltherlng winds of cold I-lave bllghted and kllled the new-horn lamb. And the fresh leaves. And the blooms Of sprlng? Why sre his eyes so red The morning after? Mist, wind. winter are all symbols of age, and these symbols are frequently explored in Lowry Nelson’s poems. There are mists on the hills, lullaby mists, and always the winds. There is a poignant honesty in his assessment of age. And yet his poems span 65 years, from his first one in 1914. An example is Music of the Wind written in 1921: Huge clouds from the black west. Roll out from their long rest. Dust forms scurry Down a lane ell blurry, That cattle and pigs detest… Though Lowry Nelson is known world-wide as a social scientist, he has not forgotten his moorings in Utah where he was born and chose to retire. ,0n Saturday he will celebrate his 90th birthday. A family dinner is planned and will be attended by two daughters who are coming from the East Coast, and other family members. Born in Ferron, Emery County in 1993. he went on to high school at Brigham Young Academy. entering Utah State Agricultural College in 1913 and graduating in illlt. Graduate studies were pursued at UCLA and University of Wisconsin, including a Ph.D. in 1929. While still a young man he was appointed Dean of the College of Applied Sciences at BYU, later organizing the BYU Extension Division. He went to work for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in 1934 and to the University of Minnesota from 1937 to 1958 as a teacher and researcher. He has had a number if visiting professorships, including one at the University of Miami until 1973 when he concluded his teaching career. As his good friend and associate Dr. Carlton Culmsee (retired Dean of Arts and Sciences at Utah State University) says, “The loss of his beloved Florence 16 months ago, and his disabilities have inevitably taken a toll. it is splendid that he could have placed this volume as a capstone on his truly great achievements. For he could not have reached the heights and explored vistas in several continents without the vision and soul fire that distinguish a poet.” One of Nelson’s poems that Culmsee singles out is a philosophical study on humanity entitled The 1-lumsn Condltlon: Homo sapiens ls down from the trees But still not out of the woods; far yet to go From hls juvenile gensterlsm stage To full maturlty… His poems are a retrospective of his life. Utah was still a territory when he was born the fourth of eight children. Much of his philosophy of life was formed in these early years as evidenced in his writings which dissect natural phenomena of his world: The Storm Somberly the blue dipped dome recedes Behlnd the mattress wall. A rolling cloud, Whlch on lts hlaclt, ominous way proceeds To shade the earth with threatenlng pall and shroud, Seems fumlng up from some tlerce source below The distant skyIlne… The real pathos is found in the chapter, Poems After Eighty. A particularly poignant one ls entitled Cancer Ward: Wounds of surgery heal again, But fltcka of paln and aches remain The injured cells recall the knife; The cutting that then ssve a lIfe. The twlnges stlr the awesome fear. That some new dangers may appear. So, we llve n lIfe uncertain. Until Father Time draws the curtain. Some of Nelson’s best poems are in this section, which substantiates the belief that the intellectual mlnd continues to mw. This volume of poems is a reverent tribute to a long and full life, free of sentimentality but wamied hy nostalgia.