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Poetry Sunday: The Road by Dana Gioia

Do you ever feel that you have missed your life by being too busy looking for it? We sometimes are so busy looking to the future that we forget to live in the present. And then one day we look up and all that time has passed us by. We have passed the milestones unaware. Dana Gioia knows that feeling.
The Road

by Dana Gioia
He sometimes felt that he had missed his life
By being far too busy looking for it.
Searching the distance, he often turned to find
That he had passed some milestone unaware,
And someone else was walking next to him,
First friends, then lovers, now children and a wife.
They were good company–generous, kind,
But equally bewildered to be there.
He noticed then that no one chose the way—
All seemed to drift by some collective will.
The path grew easier with each passing day,
Since it was worn and mostly sloped downhill.
The road ahead seemed hazy in the gloom.
Where was it he had meant to go, and with whom?
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Comments

  1. CaroleJuly 28, 2019 at 5:35 PM

    Good poem. Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pam's English GardenJuly 29, 2019 at 10:29 AM

    Food for thought, Dorothy. We should all take time to sit and decide where we are going -- instead of just mindlessly keeping going. P.x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersJuly 29, 2019 at 12:16 PM

      A lesson that I have learned late in life is that it is important to live in the moment and be aware of and grateful for each day and, with that, to think carefully about the future and what I want it to be.

      Delete
  3. Judy KruegerJuly 29, 2019 at 9:20 PM

    Well, I don't always get where I hoped to go, but I always have a plan and see my days as part of that plan, but I can understand the sentiment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersJuly 29, 2019 at 10:18 PM

      As another poet once said, our best laid plans "gang aft agley."

      Delete

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