The Path that Leads to Nowhere

Photo via Jean Wethmar on Instagram.

This Instagram spun me backwards 20+ years to when I memorized this poem. At the time I was thinking of Kiawah Island, SC. Not exactly topographically- or botanically-correct, yet the poem evokes thoughts of lazy island days.

Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (1861-1933)

THE PATH THAT LEADS
NOWHERE

THERE'S a path that leads to Nowhere
In a meadow that I know,
Where an inland island rises
And the stream is still and slow;
There it wanders under willows,
And beneath the silver green
Of the birches' silent shadows
Where the early violets lean.

Other pathways lead to Somewhere,
But the one I love so well
Has no end and no beginning—
Just the beauty of the dell,
Just the wind-flowers and the lilies
Yellow-striped as adder's tongue,
Seem to satisfy my pathway
As it winds their scents among.

There I go to meet the Springtime,
When the meadow is aglow,
Marigolds amid the marshes,—
And the stream is still and slow.
There I find my fair oasis,
And with care-free feet I tread
For the pathway leads to Nowhere,
And the blue is overhead!

All the ways that lead to Somewhere
Echo with the hurrying feet
Of the Struggling and the Striving,
But the way I find so sweet
Bids me dream and bids me linger,
Joy and Beauty are its goal,—
On the path that leads to Nowhere
I have sometimes found my soul!

 

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Corinne Roosevelt Robinson was the sister of United States President Theodore Roosevelt.

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