April Is National Poetry Month

Step Three
(Reinhold Neibhur meets Robert Frost)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
Whether to walk or whether to work,
And sorry I could not travel both
To accept what is or change what I can,
And be one traveler, long I stood
I pray to God for peace, for strength,
And looked down one as far as I could
For wisdom to know the difference,
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
To walk: God grant me serenity,
And having perhaps the better claim,
The peace that passes understanding,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Or to work: God grant me courage now,
Though as for that the passing there
The strength to face the unencountered.
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
Give me wisdom either way
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Whether I work or whether I walk
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Give me guidance that I might know,
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
Every way and every day
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
For all that I do not understand
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
And all that I do not yet see,
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
This step to take, this road to venture,
I took the one less traveled by,
The path that makes me walk with thee
And that has made all the difference.