Occasional Poems is a selection from more than fifty years of Frank Thomas's observations and musings on the world around him. Many of the poems celebrate people and occasions that have been an important part of the poet's life. Yet even these very personal poems are meant to speak to a broader audience-to what is most deeply human in us all.</p>The poems reflect many verse forms, moods, and mental landscapes and, at their best, demonstrate the qualities of music and art that words can evoke. Beautifully framing the poems are drawings by the poet's granddaughter Ryan Thomas-Palmer; they bring a coherence and a light to the poetry that the poems alone would not have.</p><p><br></p>