The Poetry of Sarah Ruden - Old Man by the Highway

Old Man by the Highway

" I am still here, while the day goes up and down.
Spare as the moon up there I walk to town.
The barns are gone, the woods, the yellow deer,
The roaring church is gone, but I am here.

" Today the sun was walking in the rain,
As if the rain were words; I am the same;
I went along through ploughing and despair,
And now I go through weeds and deadened air.

" I am still here, while the day goes up and down.
Spare as the moon up there I walk to town.
My son is gone, the flooding of the year
With wheat and hope is gone, but I am here."
Plains Poetry Journal, #27 (October 1988), p. 15.

Photographer: Harris Steinman
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A selection of poems

Index Page | The Author | Sarah's Poetry | Some Reviews

These Pages were first created in November 1996, and updated in November 2005.

Old Man by the Highway

"	I am still here, while the day goes up and down. Spare as the moon up there I walk to town. The barns are gone, the woods, the yellow deer, The roaring church is gone, but I am here.

"	Today the sun was walking in the rain, As if the rain were words; I am the same; I went along through ploughing and despair, And now I go through weeds and deadened air.

"	I am still here, while the day goes up and down. Spare as the moon up there I walk to town. My son is gone, the flooding of the year With wheat and hope is gone, but I am here." Plains Poetry Journal, #27 (October 1988), p. 15.