A lyre slants against the chair
you sit in.
Silent and alert,
as ever it waits for the poet's touch
to shimmer the strings
into sharp sounds.
You sit still,
revolving poems in your memory,
sifting them
to find the ones we
can grapple with, take fully
within our minds.
Late in the evening,
we discover the mind's neighbor,
the shy soul, so often hidden,
suddenly appears, having
already written these poems,
so ancient and abiding
is the measure of your words.
And we realize
as cold October air
bites our homeward faces,
that your soul has been laughing
us into joy for almost nine decades.
............an amazing and perfect poem to read in October.....penned very nicely with great detail....the last stanza was my favourite it brought the poem alive for me....loved reading this one...
I like this, dont really know much about Robert Bly but I'll have to look him up seeing as he inspired such a beautiful poem. This is my favorite verse: Late in the evening, we discover the mind's neighbor, the shy soul, so often hidden, suddenly appears, having already written these poems, so ancient and abiding the idea that our souls have already written poems for us and we just have to tap into them. I feel like that is the case with me sometimes. Certain phrases will be floating around for weeks until something happens and like a key it unlocks a poem that's just been waiting to be written. I love this idea of discourse between the mind and soul, and in these lines its so palpable. This is a beautiful write, even without really knowing who its about lol. Now that's great poetry! ~Nika
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Thank you so much Daniel. Wonderful Words. Robert Bly is amazing. Also today is “older persons day” from his page. I have just been hearing an interview of Robert Bly. He has a lot to still pass on to this world.