Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AND THIS, by ELMO RUSS First Line: And this is what my life is: hope without Last Line: I knew that nothing really was my own. Subject(s): Hope; Life; Night; Optimism; Bedtime | ||||||||
And this is what my life is: hope without A reason ever to hope, holding love Heavy with me, -- watching skies above To hide my glance, -- seeking ways to rout Recalling things, yet waiting for the kind Word, as the fool waits for the fool, Or wise men for the wise. A tangled spool Of ugly thread . . . days come to be, nights blind As bats and angered. This is what my life Is, -- cold, tired children . . . lame and hungry hopes Of mine have come to be. No one copes With being lost so much as one the strife Of waiting long, has reached. I have tired And feel that soon no thing will be desired. I have abandoned on my way so many Things, and tried not to look back; and sung The silence in me to a song. Among My hopes and dreams there were a few that any Would have dragged along; but I would reach The highest ladder's final rung . . . a part Of me had to be left with every start To higher step. And I went far and each Thing seemed a little less for giving all For one. And, when I looked the long road back, So steep, so dark, -- I found in me a lack Of power to return. There was a wall Of silence before each step, and part of me Was dead there, sepulchred in a moaning tree. I pierced the dark and saw, because with sight I must see something, -- ropes of burning stars; I drank of night's deep cup; I learned the laws That men know not. I saw, alone, one night All things must fail in time, and then I knew Minds going forward burn their bridges after. Then I felt my tears amidst my laughter. I saw my life before me. Only few Of many well-remembered, still, were standing When I reached the hill-road's base. But I In coming back had learned the reason why So many fear their death. At the landing To the crowd's return, I felt alone, -- I knew that nothing really was my own. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN BLACK MEN SINGING by ELMO RUSS |
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