Night poetry can be the poetry of promise. In the darkness, we can focus on what is most pressing, we can dream, we can make promises to ourselves or others. Robert Frost felt the compelling movement of a promise, that urged him to keep traveling through the dark and cold.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
—Robert Frost
Poetry Prompt
Write a night poem that makes a promise, to yourself or to someone else. Give us images that will bring the promise alive: a red velvet ribbon, a white cup, a pickup truck. (Let this be no abstract promise!)
Thanks to our participants in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a recent poem we enjoyed from Maureen…
Clearing Fog
We manage in the fog,
each looking
for the other’s heart.
But out there,
somewhere between us,
the old dark words
still hang. Please
don’t wait till sunrise,
Love, to rub a circle
clear, to let in
your once-bright light
through my window.
Photo by Phil Roeder, Creative Commons, via Flickr.
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