01 Aug Back 40: Woods at Noon

In memory of Richard Roberts [1919 – 2007]

The woods allow a road
but only as wide
as axled wheels will ride,
and in the untrod center
protest with tiny pines.

The woods permit at noon
equality of shade and light,
one so black, one so white
it cannot be told which is wrong
which is right, which is devil
which is saint, which is canvas
which is paint.

Richard Roberts (1919 – 2007) was always a poet. His anthology was published in 1944 (Spring Comes in Many Ways) and later poems appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, The Educational Forum, High Country News, and Big Sky Journal. Through his poetry, we feel his connection with nature as he experienced it living for many years in the woods of western Montana.