Hidden Valley Road by Heather Sager

I once rode a horse

in the woods

off Hidden Valley Road.

I was maybe sixteen.

There was a gray stable

in the woods,

the trees wore green and yellow leaves,

birdsong echoed in clammy air.

My horse stood tall and brown.

I settled my hands around her neck

and she led me

with quiet confidence.

There was a sway

as she took me

along earthen trails.

It felt like we could go anywhere

in this lonely world.

Why do I hold onto this

memory

of Hidden Valley road?

I’m still trying,

it’s teaching me something.

Heather Sager

3 thoughts on “Hidden Valley Road by Heather Sager

  1. DWB's avatar DWB says:

    Heather

    I really like the idea of being taught something by a happening and an animal.

    Too many modern adults are too set in their ways and think they already know it all, whatever little it is they really do know. (That includes the clowns at the “highest levels” but is NOT limited to them.)

    This poem has a meaning but the meaning is not crystal clear to the reader or the poet. That is called SYMBOL/ISM.

    We live in an age that doesn’t understand its own symbols. Technology and materialism have become a Frankenstein monster as large as 20,000 nuclear bombs and a few billionaires and trillionaires while everyone else starves. And yet no one knows (or cares) what it MEANS. Back to the easy and meaningless distractions, which include saying (over and over again) how bad it all is!

    If we could all see the world the way this poem asks us to do we would all be much better off, not in our bank accounts but in our being and inner knowing, which is both free and freedom-making. The horse is freedom available to anyone anywhere and any time as the Buddha and Hinduism all point out.

    Dale

    Liked by 1 person

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