Illusion and choice - two poems

                   Welcome!

fig leaves unfurling

The garden is growing out of control as spring takes hold (actually, I’ve never really managed to order it). It’s exciting to see some plants that were new in autumn now flowering and sprouting young growth. Deciduous trees coming into leaf, fruit trees forming tiny green fruits, grass needing mowing every week, weeds scattering their seed freely. Delightful chaos of growth and life.

Two poems for you this week, one humorous  and one a free verse revision of Robert Frost’s famous poem ‘The Road Less Traveled’. Enjoy!

Illusion

I was in the eye of my mother

who should have looked elsewhere

For from that moment’s seeing have I

been her heart’s despair.

A kit so sweet to look on,

A pair of eyes to make men pause

And gaze in raptures of delight –

My ragged fur enhanced the sight.

I purred and made my point – with teeth and claws.

The Chosen Way

Golden woods

Two trails through undergrowth

Of varied depth and beauty

Each delighting my eye, calling my feet,

My heart, tearing

My will, my yearning

To explore all ways.

But I must choose.

If this, not that

but where and then

what if?

One lures with promises of glory and song;

Could I return to follow its bright thread

Another day? The one

I feel a stronger pull toward

Is subtle, silent; a lonely road.

I go. And looking far ahead

To years when everything that now lies

Unknown, yet to be done,

Has been done,

Is known,

I'll think back to the choice I made

To seek the hidden way –

A way few try and fewer still endure –

The way which made me.

Until next week…

Claire Belberg