Halfway Around the Barn*

 

Why’d you have to go

halfway ‘round the barn

to say it?

 

Say it simply, say it well

but don’t forget the journey

 

stories brought back to tell

what we found

 

halfway around the barn.

Maybe not the story we came to tell.

 

Maybe better, we might leave

the first thing behind,

 

and follow what’s found

halfway ‘round the barn.

 

            ~ mtborhani2014

 

 

*After a remark made by Linda Gregg, to Jack Gilbert, about going “halfway around the barn” to say what he wanted to say in one of his poems. (From a retrospective interview/article in The Sun, 2013.)