Poem: Boardwalks To Walk No More

This is arguably my favorite piece of my own work. It was also quite popular when I used to perform alot on the Jersey Shore. "Boardwalks" shows the influence of musical artists on my poetry, as this poem is definitely of a Springsteen style.

I wrote this when I was 23 through the eyes of a 40 year old longing to be 23. It is interesting now as I am 40, and sometimes think back to those days of 23. For you non-locals, Asbury is Asbury Park, a shore town that had some of the best music around. The town was a dead down otherwise for many years, but is finally now being re-built. The Pony is the Stone Pony, the rock club that Bruce Springsteen made famous. It was practically a second home for me from about 1985 to 1995.

Boardwalks to Walk No More

Now the Saturday nights are gone forever,
Washed away on the Jersey shore,
Long, peaceful evenings lost in a moment,
Boardwalks to walk no more.

‘Cause when the friends you grow up with are long gone past,
And the people in town ain’t the same,
The waves lose their power, the pier all its splendor,
The beach becomes no more than a name.

Now I wake up from my sleep in a cold, hard sweat,
Put the keys in my car and drive,
Down round into Asbury, along Ocean Avenue,
The shore again seems alive.

I see the pretty girls walking the boardwalk,
I see a guy yelling out from his car,
I see myself in the distance, by the door of the Pony,
With my girl, going into the bar.

The laughing, the singing on a Saturday night,
You and your lover, and everything’s right,
Holding your baby, and dancing real slow,
Closer and closer, swearing to never let go.

But the girl I am holding is a dream of the heart,
The bar a thought of what’s past,
And the sound of the music nothing more than an echo,
Fading so dark and so fast.

For now the Saturday nights are gone forever,
Washed away on the Jersey shore,
Long, peaceful evenings lost in a moment,
And boardwalks to walk no more.

Copyright SGW 1987