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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SCAVENGING THE WALL, by RODNEY THEODORE SMITH Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: When fall brought the graders to atlas road Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, R. T. | |||
When fall brought the graders to Atlas Road, I drove through gray dust thick as a battle and saw the ditch freshly scattered with gravel. Leveling, shaving on the bevel, the blade and fanged scraper had summoned sleepers- limestone loaves and blue slate, skulls of quartz not even early freeze had roused. Some rocks were large as buckets, others just a scone tumbled up and into light the first time in ages. Loose, sharp, they were a hazard to anyone passing. So I gathered what I could, scooped them into the bed and trucked my freight away under birdsong in my own life's autumn. I was eager to add to the snaggled wall bordering my single acre, to be safe, to be still and watch the planet's purposeful turning behind a cairn of roughly balanced stones. Uprooted, scarred, weather-gray of bones, I love their old smell, the familiar unknown. To be sure this time I know where I belong I have brought, at last, the vagrant road home. Copyright © 2000 by The Modern Poetry Association. This poem appears in the December 2000 issue of Poetry Magazine. http://www.poetrymagazine.ord | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PORTRAIT OF A MACHINE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE MASK by CLARISSA SCOTT DELANY THE WIND (2) by EMILY DICKINSON ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE by THOMAS GRAY THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR by ALFRED TENNYSON THE GRAVE OF HOMER by ALCAEUS OF MESSENE |
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