In 2011, as the artist turned 80, Kipniss in deep reflection on his life and career in multiple ways. He had just published his memoir, and had reviewed his early work as a poet in preparation for Robert Kipniss: Paintings and Poetry, 1950-1964. Here, for a solo exhibition of recent work, he considers the lessons that sixty years at the easel has brought and shares a particularly poignant and relevant poem he wrote in 1959 that lends its title to the exhibition.