The River Not Taken
—after Robert Frost
The sloop’s main sail was hoisted tight
But in the fog I now was lost;
I reached where half the stream veered right
The other left. Encroaching night
Meant I must choose; but at what cost?
I had no time and so chose West
To where I knew the sun would set;
That Eastward might yet still be best—
Was something which I could not test
And left me with a vague regret.
What can you do? You choose, then go;
The past is narrowed to a strait
And what you chose three leagues ago
Determines all you think and know
And somehow navigates your fate.
Your world view—drawn from all you learn—
Is such a river. Where you start
Means less than how you trim and turn,
For from this choosing you’ll discern
Your own lived truth and moral chart.
Your sails catch wind and now you’re caught
From now until you breathe your last;
Each prejudice and hope and thought,
Each fact that you have learned and taught—
Is borne from choices past and passed.
Joseph Weighs His Brothers’ Fates
—a rondeau
If I forgive them, then they’ve won—
They profit from the web they spun
Convinced they are both skilled and smart
As each one plays his cunning part.
They’re not my brothers! No, not one!
Should I seek vengeance? Shall I shun
And mock, assault, enslave and stun?
I’d have to sheathe each poisoned dart
__If I forgive…
Yet, once my rage-filled acts are done
Might not the violence I’ve begun
Just rip my tattered soul apart?
Would it not salve my wounded heart
To see each as my father’s son
__If I forgive?
Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Bradenton, Florida.
As a person who has had many “vague” (and not so vague) regrets about the many choices I made at various forks in the river of life, your poem “The River Not Taken” really speaks to me, especially the last phrase, “choices past and passed.” Couldn’t be said better or more succinctly!!! I have often thought about writing a “forks in the river” book where various alternate histories would play out in how the story enfolds and ultimately ends. And I like your “Joseph” rondeau– it gives us insight into Joseph’s internal workings and cogitations of his mind as he comes to the ultimate decision to forgive his brothers. Well done as always, Brian!