Greetings again everyone. This poem was for an assignment in my creative writing class. The assignment was to create a poem of at least 25 lines that begins with the famous opening line, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” to Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. Anyway, I thought it was a fun assignment and so I decided to play with it. As you will probably be able to tell, I tried to create a raw and more surreal poem about the woods. I hope I achieved that, and so I ask you all for your feedback. Well, once more into the breach!

 

Two Roads

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

The only thing that breathed were the trees.

I couldn’t think, I couldn’t see, then I could.

 

The roads split violently on the path,

One body ruptured from the heart,

I could see them reaching for each other

As their flesh spread bit by bit.

 

Staring at them for a time

Choosing seemed too far.

Too far away, my mind astray,

With only the roads to hold me.

 

Finally, I took a step,

I don’t remember which.

Which foot, which road,

Which frog, which toad,

That croaked and beckoned me.

 

Forests are never lonely.

Always full of life,

Teeming, scheming, teeth all seizing,

I can feel those teeth at my back.

 

Finally, my feet picked up

And the ground began to shake,

Rumbling, turning, voice unfolding,

Building up to bursting.

 

The pitter patter of my feet

Spread out like spiderwebs,

Drops in the ocean of suffocating noise

With such a story to tell.

 

I don’t remember the road I took in the end,

Don’t think it matters too much.

But what did matter

Was that unending clatter

That pierced into my mind.

 

I’ll never forget that day in the woods,

I’ll never forget the rolling sounds,

I will not forget the bleeding ground,

Running, and feeling as though I could.

 

5 thoughts on “Two Roads: A.D. March 28, 2019”

  1. I like the idea and most of the execution but my initial reaction was that the way you went from the split road to back into being descriptive of different sounds the body makes back to the rolling roads of the forest feels forced in your last 3 stanzas. I do like the description of the sounds that can be heard within our own silent place and how you began and closed out the poem and just about everything else besides the sudden change in those last 3 stanzas. You did convey your idea of a raw and surreal poem so congratulations on conveying what you intended, although not much was left up to interpretation(in my mind) this poem did not need to have that discussion-factor. It was just peacefully good.

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