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ELIZABETH KAPLAN

Staff Writer

A

rthur Lipsitt doesn't count
sheep. And he won't read
"The History of the Roman
Empire" at 4 a.m. or watch
late-night reruns of "The Un-
touchables."
When Lipsitt wakes up in the
middle of the night, he writes poetry.
Lipsitt, a resident of the Jewish
Home for Aged's Borman Hall, has
been writing almost all of his life. He
has a collection of 266 poems that he
keeps carefully organized in folders,
notebooks and envelopes.
Most of the poems are about emo-
tions, values or friends — "but none
of those trees and running streams
and flowers. I don't write about that,"
the 88-year-old Lipsitt says.
When he writes is less rigid. "I
may wake up at two in the morning
and write a poem;' he says. "Or it can
take several weeks!'
He takes out a packet of poems,
written on lined paper and held
together with a thick rubber band.
These are the original works,
unedited and unrevised. Words have
been crossed out — sometimes whole
verses.
"Look at this one," Lipsitt says,
pointing to the first version of a poem
called "Courtesy and Kindness!' The
last stanza has been crossed out and
rewritten several times, "then final-
ly I went back to the original!'
Lipsitt is especially concerned
with the last stanza of his rhyming
creations, "because that's where the
pitch line is?'
One poem, for example, ends:
We flatter those we scarcely know
We please the occasional guest
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those we love the best.
His poems are published regular-
ly in The Mature American and have
appeared in the Jewish Community
Center's Writer's Journal. They are
one of the things that prompted the
Jewish Home for Aged to nominate
him for Michigan's senior citizen of
the year.
Members of the Home for Aged
staff also praise Lipsitt's approach to
life.

THE
ART

"He's a delightful person," says
Iris Mickel, director of community
services at Borman Hall. "He's got a
great attitude about living here and
is a real inspiration to the other
residents?'

Of

At 88 years old, Arthur Lipsitt
is the master of verse
and a chief organizer
at the
Jewish Home for Aged

Arthur Lipsitt: No trees or running streams.

Glenn Triest

orn in Toronto in 1900, Lip-
sitt got his first job — deli-
vering newspapers — when
he was 8 years old. His
mother would wake the
young boy at 4 a.m. and serve him
cookies and milk.
In the winter, she dressed her son
in long stockings and garters before
he went out on his route. In the sum-
mer, Lipsitt wore his roller skates to
deliver papers.
Lipsitt was such a skilled delivery
boy that he once collected $250 in
bonuses for the holidays. The money
was used to pay for an operation for
his mother.
Lipsitt moved to Detroit when he
was 12. His sister helped him find a
job here, working as a salesman for a
wholesale company.
Only two years later, Lipsitt was
out drumming up business for
himself. After paying a nickel to ride
the streetcar to town, he would go in-
to offices to see if they had any good
openings.
Once, he heard that a certain com-
pany would conduct job interviews
starting at 3 p.m. Wearing long pants
"to make me look older," he arrived
at the office at about 2:30. Lipsitt was
frustrated to discover a long line of
young men already waiting for
interviews.
"So I just walked into the office,"
he says. "And I got the job!'
By 1922, Lipsitt was doing so well
professionally that he opened his own
department store in River Rouge. He
later joined relatives in their beauty
and barber supply business, then
opened his own store in 1940.
Lipsitt brought his entrepreneu-
rial spirit to the Jewish Home for Ag-
ed, where he settled in 1976 — in the
same room he lives in today. "I got in-
volved right away," he says. "That's
just the kind of guy I am?'
His dream was to create a
residents council "because I wanted
people to participate in the running

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