On a bright horse galloping

Written tonight while listening to this gorgeous piece by Eric Whitacre, entitled “October”:

On a bright horse galloping
slowly over a sun-set field
a prince, a princess
a bride, a king, a man and girl;
a story grand and told again
again and again -
I am the old man in the window
of the unnoticed home
beside the great pasture.

I watch as each sun sets slowly,
ceaseless, the sound of
trumpets, brassily rejoicing today,
tomorrow, the next
time goes nowhere but around.
She rides away with him against the clouds,
I am alone.

What then I know I wouldn’t give to see
a saga sweet and glorious as theirs,
a piece of orange-purple cloudburst, free
from walls of stone and sullen, skyless air.

1 Response to “On a bright horse galloping”


  1. 1 Riley

    Ben, you’re amazing at writing poems. You’re able to capture emotion with them. I love the song you added too. I might try to coax my band director into letting us play this :)

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