Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SIMPLE LIE, by NEVILLE PEACE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SIMPLE LIE, by                    
First Line: I had gone back
Last Line: Give me a simpler lie.
Subject(s): Homecoming; Reality


I had gone back
To see the orchard I used to know,
The pasture and the walnut tree
And the wild plum thicket.
I had gone back to see
The farmland of my youth.

Now I have come home again,
Wishing I had not gone.
I am done forever and ever with truth.

Give me rather than truth
A simpler lie.
Give me back a lad's unquestioning eyes
That knew the wonder of unimportant things,
That I may go back to a little stream
Where I can lie all afternoon and watch the sky,
Chew a blade of grass and lie warm in the sun
And listen for the katy-did to sing.

I would drive the cows to pasture
And stop awhile to wade in Herndon's pond;
Then run the furrows of a ploughed field
Back to the path I had wandered from.

I have gone back where I
Shall never go again.
There is finality in truth:
Give me a simpler lie.





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