The poem below is featured at the head of one of the final chapters of a book I finished recently. As much as I enjoy writing, poetry as a form of expression rarely attracts me. I tend to get very impatient slogging through poetry, so prose is most definitely my first choice when it comes to reading and writing.

But Sheenagh Pugh’s “What if this road” plucked more than a few of my heart strings as I read it. I feel like the poem describes not just my course through life, but a way that I think we should all look at our journeys. Pugh’s words evoke a subtle but intense excitement—and maybe even a little fear—at the idea that our road can change course at a moment’s notice.

So scary. So exciting. And so dependent on a trust in our God, that he will take care of us, even as we tread paths that we never thought we would.

What if this road

What if this road, that has held no surprises

These many years, decided not to go

Home after all; what if it could turn

Left or right with no more ado

Than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin

Were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,

That is shaken and rolled out, and takes

A new shape from the contours beneath?

And if it chose to lay itself down

In a new way; around a blind corner,

Across hills you must climb without knowing

What’s on the other side; who would not hanker

To be going, at all risks? Who wants to know

A story’s end, or where a road will go?

by Sheenagh Pugh