Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Of Walls and Neighbors: National Poetry Month

Dry Stone wall building
(By TR001 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Dave Healy is back with another poem, this time alluding to Robert Frost's famous "Mending Wall." 

Something There Is

If we build it will they come?
If we build it how high and long?

High enough to shut out the sun?
Long enough to enclose our fear?

Will one be enough?
Will it ever be enough?

Can a partition admit contrition?
Can we safely hedge our bets?

Who will watch o’er this rampart?
Who will help us unlearn long division?

Can we wall them out
without walling ourselves in?

When our progeny orbit this lonely planet
how many Great Walls will they see?

Hand me another brick.
I can still hear a heart beating.

Great wall of china-mutianyu 4
By Ahazan (own work by Ahazan) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Thanks, Dave. 

What do you think? Do good fences make good neighbors?

Hear Robert Frost read his poem:






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