Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 18.188.70.255
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
I know I've been here in this afternoon 4: 10 P.M. Like lubricated clockworks in a perpetual machine My life returns to this brown earth blue sky Pressed in between the distance And the silence and the cries of crows Who gather, circle, and grow louder In the rising dusk. This is how it has been, is, will always be. This red clay bank where the road was carved Has risen here forever. That old capped well has always dripped and echoed In the plunging darkness And the far-off crack that is cicadas breaking from their skins, These things have always been in motion. That path that disappears just there between the trees Leads now, as ever, to a grand but faded house Drowsing in the humming shade, Where my father's fathers lived and died, Lay open eyed and wide awake Through first bird sounds and whipporwhills As grey ascended into daylight once again And just as always far too soon. A place where lost boys raged And beat their hands against closed doors, Is this my road, these shaded woods, This certain path the only map that I can read? Sometimes in the small hours even now I think I hear the pounding of my father's desperate hands On doors locked, bolted, and immune, The ringing of his secret wars Down darkened, pine floored corridors Where secrets are piled thick upon each other. The only sound I hear now on this narrow road Is wind that hisses in the branches In sharp swift gusts from long ago Standing now beneath those branches, Owning no locked door to pound upon, I wonder why my clenched and aching hands Are bleeding. Thunder rolls and rumbles, Distant in the fading afternoon.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required