Featured Poem: The Back Nine

By  Carol Ehrlich
Denver Branch 

 

I travel the back nine

in a reverie,

absorbed in the sweet reward

of nearing completion,

all the time sorry to see the game end,

weighed down by the weary knowing

of shots hit wrong —

misjudged and just plain missed —

yet buoyed by the feeling still in my muscles of

playing well when sometimes I did.

 

I’d like to play it over,

to make the errors disappear,

to feel the good shots

once more ring true.

I’d like to wage it like a champion

and wear the triumph in my bones.

 

The truth is plain, however —

Like a concert just over in a crowded hall,

like cycles of nature that never halt,

like the path of the sun,

the history is written.

It is what it is.

 

Do-overs are not an option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 comments

  1. Karen Morris says:

    Definitely captures the universal desire for some “mulligans” in life, as we have all wished for, while acknowledging the good shots in the game. Very nice metaphor, Carol.

  2. Claire Massey says:

    This striking poem reminds us of a universal and bittersweet truth–how appropriate that it appears at the end of the year and at the threshold of a new one!

  3. Sally Wahl Constain says:

    thank you for sharing your beautiful and heartfelt poem. It is beautifully written and so full of meaning.

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