Daniel Henry Rodgers Poet Cento

Notes About The Poem

Author’s Note:

Welcome to Part III! If you're new to the thread, this is a five-part piece blending the classic lyrics of the 60s through 90s with my own lived memories tucked inside the parentheticals. Today we hit the midweek stride. These sections dive into the speed of time passing and that classic rock-and-roll urge to run, measuring the music against how fast the years actually slip by. Thanks for reading along with me this week.

======

 

The Great American Songbook of the Soul - Part III: The Running Man

VI. THE RUNNING MAN’S
LIFE 
 
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
        Like a watercolour in the rain

Tramps like us
        Baby,
                we were born to run
 
The highways jammed
        with broken heroes
                On a last chance drive
 
It’s a wild world
        It’s hard to get by
                just upon a smile, girl

He was born
        in the summer
                of his twenty-seventh year

We’re just two lost
souls
        swimming
                in a fish bowl

No one told you
        when to run
                You missed the starting gun
       (Stefi, Becca, Jules—how did the years
outpace the engine?)
        (a poetry man since '73, the same three
chords still finding
        new ways to break)
 
Talk to me some more
        You don't have to go
 
Fathers taught me
how to leave;
        the years taught me how to wait

After changes
        upon changes
                we are more or less the same

And then one day you
find
        ten years
                have got behind you

And then one day you
find
        ten years
                have got behind you again
 
There never seems
        to be enough time

It was long ago and far away
       the world was younger than today
 
All we are
        is dust in the wind
 
        (corridor break)
 
All we are
        is dust in the wind
 
       (the descent deepens)
 
 
VII. THE COLLAPSE OF
TIME
 
I’ve been lately thinking 
        about my life’s time
 
Time can bring you
down
        Time can bend your knees
 
So you speak to me
        of sadness
 
Then winter’s
        for wondering
                what went wrong
 
I have stood upon
the mountain
        and looked down
                on all the people
 
I’m going to be a
happy idiot
        and struggle
                for the legal tender
 
        (pause)
 
I’ve seen fire
        and I’ve seen rain

Still, a man
        hears what he wants to hear
                and disregards the rest

Across the evening
sky
        all the birds
                are leaving

In the year
        of the cat

        (the descent reaches its floor, hell)
 

 ====== 
END OF PART 3 of 5

♡Like0

Share Poem

---

Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

David Crandall July 8, 2026 at 5:06 PM So, here's what I got this time - Springsteen, Cat Stevens, John Denver, Pink Floyd, Phoebe Snow, Paul Simon, Janis Ian, Kansas, Eric Clapton, Jackson Brown, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, Al Stewart...well, I think I missed some. Interesting that Phoebe Snow and Led Zeppelin share the musical phrase (you don't have to go) - probably a whole lotta people said that, "I'll let you be in my dream, if I can be in yours - I said that" (not)

David Crandall July 8, 2026 at 4:58 PM It's a great idea. I feel like my life has a soundtrack with a similar, and sometimes same set of songs. I sometimes wonder why when lyrics accompany music and a melody, they become so much more profound and poetic (to me). You're the poet to explain it , probably. Music is a deeper place, where we all meet. It's crazy and hopefully not irritating, but by listing the artists, it shows I know the songs, and that shared experience seems to mean something.

Tom Cunningham July 3, 2026 at 1:20 PM Some I recognise but for the life of me the names I can't remember. This is a work of art how you've done this. Tom