POEMS/ Somewhere, a Road
High Road, by Edward Hopper, 1931
Somewhere, a Road
after Edward Hopper’s High Road
Some roads bring us home
or where we plan to be — a house
beside a lake, apartment with a view,
family and friends who cherish us,
work that we excel in and enjoy --
or carry us to lands we’ve always longed to see.
Others lead to places we do not want to go,
to canyons so deep and narrow there is no light,
no air, to tunnels ending suddenly
before a wall of stone, or down a hill
to cross a river where there is no bridge,
or to a frozen lake that stops our hearts.
But there’s a road through Truro
that comes from nowhere and disappears
as strangely as it came, a road that neither
beckons nor repels, a road that makes no statement,
has no dogma, no lesson to convey,
but runs between a row of wireless poles — disconnected,
yet aware of where it is, a road that rises
from a vast horizon that never seems to end
and passes just one solitary cluster of houses on its way,
a road that knows where it is going,
and how to get there, a road I choose to travel
when I can.
Somewhere, a Road, appears in All Roads Go Where They Will (Antrim House, 2010)
after Edward Hopper’s High Road
Some roads bring us home
or where we plan to be — a house
beside a lake, apartment with a view,
family and friends who cherish us,
work that we excel in and enjoy --
or carry us to lands we’ve always longed to see.
Others lead to places we do not want to go,
to canyons so deep and narrow there is no light,
no air, to tunnels ending suddenly
before a wall of stone, or down a hill
to cross a river where there is no bridge,
or to a frozen lake that stops our hearts.
But there’s a road through Truro
that comes from nowhere and disappears
as strangely as it came, a road that neither
beckons nor repels, a road that makes no statement,
has no dogma, no lesson to convey,
but runs between a row of wireless poles — disconnected,
yet aware of where it is, a road that rises
from a vast horizon that never seems to end
and passes just one solitary cluster of houses on its way,
a road that knows where it is going,
and how to get there, a road I choose to travel
when I can.
Somewhere, a Road, appears in All Roads Go Where They Will (Antrim House, 2010)