I Love Robert Bly's poems

Living a Week Alone

by Robert Bly

After writing for a week alone in my old shack,
I guide the car through Ortonville around midnight.

The policeman talks intently in his swivel chair.
The light from above shines on his bald head.

Soon the car picks up speed again beside the quarries.
The moonspot on the steel tracks moves so fast!

Thirty or so Black Angus hold down their earth
Among silvery grasses blown back and forth in the wind.

My family is still away; no one is home.
How sweet it is to come back to an empty house-

The windows dark, no lamps lit, trees still,
The barn serious and mature in the moonlight.

- Robert Bly from Like the New Moon,
I Will Live My Life. © White Pine Press, 2015.