Just take it

(Photo: Istock, snezhok)

on Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”

They love it, my students—memorize the words,

but miss the point about that less-traveled road,

claim Frost a hero for endorsing the holy my way,

though he called this poem “a tricky one, very

tricky,” less about not following the crowd, or

even which path, and more about just making

up your mind. If he could, the poet would nod

to Yogi Berra: If you come to a fork in the road,


take it. In the end, there will always be those

two paths: the one you choose, and the other one.

Pick one—one that loves you back, and if you

still seek some Yankee wisdom, try that other poem,


the one about not standing and waiting too long,

about miles and miles to go, about promises to keep.

This poem first appeared in the 2010 edition of VISION and received a Catholic Media Association award for best poetry.