"People Like Us"

[rothslovechild.livejournal.com]

This is a poem Robert Bly wrote in tribute to his friend and fellow poet James Wright, and it's one of the most absolutely heartbreaking poems I've ever read.

(Forgive me, the formatting is a little bit messed up.)

"People Like Us"
by Robert Bly

There are more like us. All over the world
There are confused people, who can't remember
The name of their dog when they wake up, and people
Who love God but can't remember where

He was when they went to sleep. It's
All right. The world cleanses itself this way.
A wrong number occurs to you in the middle
Of the night, you dial it, it rings just in time

To save the house. And the second-story man
Gets the wrong address, where the insomniac lives,
And he's lonely, and they talk, and the thief
Goes back to college. Even in graduate school,

You can wander into the wrong classroom,
And hear great poems lovingly spoken
By the wrong professor. And find your soul,
And greatness has a defender, and even in death
you're safe.