Poem: Voice on the Trail

 

 

Voice on the Trail

“and at last I saw : where
the road lay through sunlight and many voices and the marvel
orchards, not for me, not for me, not for me.” 
-from the poem ‘Then I Saw What the Calling Was’ by Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)

 

All the voices of the Wood called “Shannon!”

But it was soon solved; it is nothing, it is not

my real name.

 

My real name is written on a stone kept warm by eternal

embers I am still too cold to hold.

 

Words like Real and Endure

Sound like Health and Hell

 

Then I see what is calling, it was the road

I traveled, miles behind, warning me of the FORK

The sound bounces forward, then back, right-side-down

warns of mud ahead―not to me, but to anyone.

 

And at last I saw where the road lies wide,

and clear orchard rows, easy fruit and bundled grass

roll along a tan, green and blue landscape.

 

Not for me. Not for me. Not for me.

 

I came into my clear being uncalled, alive, and sure

of all but what I see.

Nothing speaking to me, none know my real name―

not the owl, the fish or the elk, but I offer myself

to the strangers and it is well.

 

Strangers we are.

I know them all.

 

-SPL

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