The Old Blind Man-For Tiresias Poem by Thomas Noel Smith

I am not my people’s voice
Nor their prophet from on high.
I’m the old blind man

Walking down the narrow streets
Searching for my light
And a path to take me home

I dare to sing all life’s songs,
Of today and yesterday
And the unheard songs
Of what’s to be
In the tomorrow’s
That I see
.
Clashing crowds of empty men
Hear me tapping in the day
And they me hear in the night…
The night, when I alone can see.

The tap, tap, tapping
Of a wandering cane
In the light and in the dark
Tapping in the dream-filled night

I dare to sing all life’s songs,
Of today and yesterday
And the unheard songs
Of what’s to be
In the tomorrow’s
That I see

I’ve heard the sound of my people’s noise
Booming like guns and crashing cars
But in their hearts a silence lives.
That never dreams of song.

I dare to sing all life’s songs,
Of today and yesterday
And the unheard songs
Of what’s to be
In the tomorrow’s
That I see

The tap, tap, tapping
Alone at dusk on an empty street.
“Tell me mother, what I hear.”
“Hush, my child and do not fret..
‘Tis the old blind man
Walking his beat”

I dare to sing the songs of life,
Of today and yesterday
And the unheard songs
Of what’s to be.