The Mentor

My sin-off of Robert Frost

I paused to stand and watch a man who had come to the road’s divide,

my wonder soared as I watched his stare slowly shift from side to side.

He stood as if not noticing that many passed him by,

they moved without a second glance down the road most traveled by.

 

Then as I watched he stepped full stride toward the path of lesser wear,

and soon he vanished from my view round a bend into the snare.

I soon, like him, stood center road faced with that daunting choice.

My gaze down his road, causing fear, I quenched my inner voice.

 

For miles I walked the crowded road breathing dust from other’s feet,

til in despair I stopped and stood, my heart and soul deplete.

I gazed about still holding hope, the other path I’d see,

on yonder hill I saw him there - the man who mentored me.

 

The path between us steep and rough, un-forged with dangers there,

yet still I left my path of friends, ignoring their bewares.

I pressed through hardship, pain and fear o’er rocks jagged and bent.

In time I crashed limp on that path, my every resource spent.

 

But then a warming touch I felt, a friendly voice I heard.

It said, “Get up and tread this path”.  I rose without a word.

And as I looked, I saw him there, he continued on his way,

his only words as he walked on, “you’re on the path, now stay”.

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I chose in err,

but looking back (perhaps as well) all memories now seem fair.

Much time I spent on the beaten path and what I learned, immense.

But I reached at last the other path… and it still made all of the difference.

 

Inspired by Robert Frost’s “A Road Less Taken”