Song for Lonely Roads by Sherwood Anderson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 18, 2015   Song for Lonely Roads   Sherwood Anderson

Now let us understand each other, love, Long time ago I crept off home, To my own gods I went.   The tale is old, It has been told By many men in many lands. The lands belong to those who tell. Now surely that is clear.   After the plow had westward swept, The gods bestowed the corn to stand. Long, long it stood, Strong, strong it grew, To make a forest for new song.   Deep in the corn the bargain hard Youth with the gods drove home. The gods remember, Youth forgets. Doubt not the soul of song that waits.   The singer dies, The singer lives, The gods wait in the corn, The soul of song is in the land. Lift up your lips to that.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “Song for Lonely Roads” was published in Mid-American Chants (John Lane Company, 1918).   Sherwood Anderson was born in Ohio in 1876. A writer of poetry, fiction, and plays, he published two books of verse, Mid-American Chants (1918) and A New Testament (1927). He died on March 8, 1941. Poetry by Anderson   Mid-American Chants (Quale Press, 2006) "Balance" by Adam Zagajewski "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038