Night Walk
I have walked now and then in rain,
Walked until the road gave to stones.
I have known a thing or two of pain.
I’ve returned home alone at night,
To rooms that don’t speak back to me at all.
I have stayed up late without a light.
I have watched the half-moon disappear,
Watched until the frost benumbed my face.
I have seen the seasons of the year.
I have left warm, pleasant rooms for plain,
Left without a word explaining why.
I have known a thing or two of pain.
(1980)
NOTES: Robert Frost said, “I have been one acquainted with the night.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “To seem the stranger lies my lot … ”
Ray Charles sang, “I live on lonely avenue.”
This poem 38-year-old history, but I took a walk the other night, and before the half moon disappeared behind a cloud, I got a shot. And it made me think of a less happy time.
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