Morning Song – Road Not Taken
Song below is really a solo.
Morning Song
I woke up this morning
like I wake up most days
wanting to see you
in the worst way.
But what I said then
I cannot unsay
when the road not taken
was washed away.
I think of your fingers.
I think of your hands.
They’re farther now
than the farthest of lands.
A heart that’s forsaken
is here for to stay,
while the road not taken
is washed away.
I scrub at that longing–
treat love like a stain.
Try to rinse out the wanting
those old times again.
But as long as I’m living,
I’ll relive that day
when the road not taken
was washed away.
I woke up this morning
with you on my mind
though it’s long ago now,
reached the end of that line.
Still I wished me so hard–
God help me I prayed–
for the road not taken
to wind back my way.
***********************
Here’s a re-write of an old song/ballad of mine, posted for Kerry O’Connor’s challenge on With Real Toads to write something relating to Robert Frost whose birthday is this month. This poem is more country western than anything else (I even have sort of a mumbling tune in mind and hence the pic), but there is the Frosting of the road not taken.
Tags: Heart that's foresaken--you know the rest, http://withrealtoads.blog, manicddaily, Morning Song a la Robert Frost, Robert Frosted, The Road Not Taken is Washed Away, Wish You hadn't gone
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ManicDDaily 
March 2, 2014 at 9:34 am
Thank you for this song! My heart is throbbing with empathy and loss. My feet are dancing to read the poem!
March 2, 2014 at 9:37 am
Thank you, Susan. k.
March 2, 2014 at 10:47 am
What a beautoful song… I can really hear it sung.. Emylou Harris perhaps.. I heard here once in concert and she said that she prefrered the sad songs… and just maybe she never really did anything else… and then I wonder how we regret the things we did or didn’t do…
March 2, 2014 at 10:51 am
Very folky sort of ballad, k. I like it, and of course, the road not taken, which made Frost a presence forever in lots of American minds which are normally pretty unreceptive to poetry, is a classic trope, and always the road we look down, into the mists of might have been.
March 2, 2014 at 1:52 pm
Yes, Frost had a good thing going with that phrase! People tend to want a line-item veto on life–to change just one thing and imagine then that all else would then be great. k.
March 2, 2014 at 11:01 am
Very poignant, when one reflects on paths that cant be walked again. Beautifully done, and it would make a perfect song. I love those two elephants, too.
March 2, 2014 at 1:53 pm
Thanks, Sherry. k.
March 2, 2014 at 12:20 pm
def there are some of those roads that we did not take that we wish would come winding back…others i am glad they veared off along a different way because my life would be so much different…nice play on frost k
March 2, 2014 at 1:26 pm
The deep longing becomes so poignant at the end….beautifully written…
March 2, 2014 at 1:50 pm
first, that illustration is so so cute!
i love the poem…so much my current state of mind.
March 2, 2014 at 1:51 pm
Thanks, Mohana–so sorry to hear that you are in a regretful frame of mind. k.
March 2, 2014 at 3:51 pm
I feel ya. Great song, Karin ~
March 2, 2014 at 4:16 pm
Before reading your comment that this poem was originally a ballad I was tapping my feet. What a beautiful piece. Loved it. Many thanks.
Greetings from London.
March 2, 2014 at 4:42 pm
I love it. Challenging to reference a great poet like Frost, but you manage it beautifully by starting with that well-known title which has passed into the vernacular.
March 2, 2014 at 5:15 pm
It reads with a country-western cadence, but the message and end lines totally connect to Frost. Nice work.
March 2, 2014 at 7:11 pm
I scrub at that longing–
treat love like a stain.
This is a great line. The poem has such a strong lyrical content It’s hard not to read aloud and then it get stuck in you hear for the rest of the day.
March 2, 2014 at 7:53 pm
I can sing these words to the new tune going in my head!
March 2, 2014 at 7:59 pm
Ha, thanks! k.
March 3, 2014 at 8:16 am
I hear the tune too … what if we all got together and actually composed it? Great stuff, K.
March 3, 2014 at 8:58 am
Thanks, Helen.
March 3, 2014 at 8:21 am
This has amazing intensity, Karen, and how excellent an idea to look at the road not taken with hindsight. I thought your second stanza was really outstanding in a poem which sang from start to finish.
March 3, 2014 at 8:48 am
Thanks so much, Kerry.
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March 3, 2014 at 10:50 am
This is really marvelous, Karen. It sings.
March 3, 2014 at 12:00 pm
this is great read with country western sound-track.
colloquial lines like: in the worst way, those old times again, God help me I prayed — give the poem a real time and space. Frost’s The Road Not Taken seems timeless to me, this brings it to personal present ( or personal past : ) ) I esp. like your line “I scrub at that longing”
March 4, 2014 at 7:56 am
A fine song…add three chords and bourbon and stir briskly. A melody does suggest itself. Are you a musician?
Steve K.
March 4, 2014 at 8:02 am
Ha– not really, I used to play the piano and sing, and I confess to a brief stint trying to write country/western with a dear friend–we actually made quite an awful demo in Nashville–I think if this were turned into a song, the verses would need to be arranged differently to have a varied melody/refrain–as maybe a bit monotonous the way its laid out? I don’t know. I am hoping some day for more time! Thanks, Steve for your kind comment. Are you a musician? k.
March 4, 2014 at 8:26 am
I’ve written a bunch of lyrics. I play at guitar and am revisiting my keyboard even as we speak. I don’t think your verses are monotonous in the least. If you were in the studio, maybe they’d ask for a musical bridge after verse two and a short lyric bridge after verse three…listen to me! If I actually knew how to do anything artistic, I’d be off doing it! Have a great day.
March 4, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Beautiful! Would love to hear this sung.