In the notes on my phone, I have two poems by Robert Frost. “Revelation” and “Reluctance”. For some reason, these poems seem to be ever relevant in my life. Relevant reluctant revelation? Or the other way around? I like to collect poems. One poem, however, has been stuck in my heart since childhood, before I even spoke English very well. It was printed in a novel about courageous children and their struggles in a hard and cold world, and I read the poem over and over until I could remember it by heart. And through all of my teen and adult years, I never forgot. Funnily, I didn’t realize until a few years back that it was by Robert Frost. It goes like this:
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
Why would I remember this poem? I don’t know. And why do Robert Frost poems
seem to stick in my life? Two in my phone, one in my heart. It may be as simple
as this: ”
The heart is still aching to seek, but the feet question: “Whither?”
So simple. So beautiful.
