Nothing Is Forever

Weekly Prompt: the world through the eyes of Robert Frost and Pony Boy

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost 1874-1963

I first head this poem when Pony Boy recited it in The Outsiders. Later in the film, Ralph Macchio as Johnny utters his last words before dying, “stay gold Pony Boy.” A scene I watched at least a hundred times as a teenager and had the joy of seeing again during the Covid lockdown, when our local movie theatre setup drive-in screens in the parking lot. A mind-blowing experience for my teenage daughter, Scarlett who thought watching a movie in your car and getting audio through the radio was about the coolest technology ever. She’s right. Nothing gold can stay Scarlett.