Later,
later behind his desk
the aged librarian absorbs
some ancient words,
traces how
his fate is set in ink.
He sees how
space-time paths
meanders
from the past to present
through birth to death
in peace and war
crossing rivers,
mountains, plains.
But, he cannot see
the crossroads left;
the cul-de-sacs
roads through other valleys
cause a road once walked
is always clear.
Into the night
the future stretches
unknown, unwalked
through random choices
of yet unwritten books.
Today Merril hosts dVerse Poetics, and the prompt is thinking about fate, also referring back to Frosts famous poem “The road not taken”. I had to tie back this to my aged librarian with my own thoughts on how we always look back saying the present is all a natural result of what happened in the past. Yet future is always unclear, stretching into the night.
April 22, 2025
Björn Rudbergs writings 
I agree with that concluding verse, as the future is unknown and many things can stll come to pass. All roads offer many possibilities. Love the aged Librarian series!
The future is always unknown….
I like the librarian pondering his road (with a nod to Frost). And of course, his road would be laid in books, with the future unknown. (Like when you start a book!)
The librarian would of course look for fate in his books.
😊
A beautiful poem about choices!
Choice or fate…. we can never tell.
I love the way you combined Frost’s poem and the aged librarian’s story to express how the present is a natural result of what happened in the past, Björn, setting the poem in the present with the aged librarian absorbing ancient words from the past. I also love the idea of space-time paths meandering from past to present, and on ‘into the night’ and the unknown future.
This is what it is to me, speculating about crossroads in the past does not really make sense to me.
your aged Librsrian is a guy who knows he is on the right path
much♡love
I think he may know a little bit more, but I think in many aspects he is as blind as anyone else (but at least he knows his fallacy)
Hindsight is supposed to be 20-20, foresight a moshpit of frenzied maenads … Me, my past meanders and the future is a booze snooze. I guess fate makes us fools of time. (Great image creation there with Chat GPT, Google’s Gemini has been to art school recently.)
Future cannot be predicted, neither can alternatives in the past be understood….
The road taken is always clear…. looking back we wonder…
What if we had taken the other path?
Well done, Bjorn!
Or are we even aware that that path even existed?
I think we only see it if we look for it!
Back to the librarian, his profound wisdom .. especially “into the night the future stretches unknown, unwalked through random choices of yet unwritten books” Amazing poem, Bjorn.
Your poem is very interesting, Bjorn. Well done.
You are at your best with the old librarian, and the philosophy is real, not forced.
Great poem, Bjorn! I especially love the last stanza.
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
I love the nod to Frost (quite natural from a librarian) and how his fate is tied to the books.