Poetry

When I was a girl, I wrote so many poems. I wrote poems about puppies, poems about my friends, silly poems, serious poems. I loved the sing-song flow of poetry.

As a teenager, I expressed all of my thoughts through poetry. The things I wanted to scream, the things I couldn’t say. Every feeling I ever felt found its way on to paper.

Some years ago, in a fit of stupidity, I threw out notebooks full of all of my old poems. Some of them were just ramblings, but there were some pretty good ones in there, too. I was letting go of the past. Oh the things we do when we are young and trying to do the right thing.

Tomorrow, for Throwback Thursday, I will share with you a poem that I wrote. For today, I thought I would share with you my favorite poem. A poem that I fell in love with as a child and have carried with me, returning to often, throughout the years.

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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

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I can’t really tell you why this poem speaks to me so loudly. It’s always been that way. Just sort of screaming in my head. I take comfort in it. Draw strength from it. Sometimes I reach for it. Other times, it just sort of creeps up on me.

Do you have a poem like that?