Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘walking’

One Friendship

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 5, 2019| 4 Comments »

—for Kyra

 

walking the icy hill

every step a triumph—

and us,

crazy enough

to walk it together

Read Full Post »

Bushwhack

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on February 2, 2019| 2 Comments »

 

 

I followed the road as if it were a teacher.

It went up, I went up. It turned, I turned.

It was a long time before I relearned

that the road is not the only way to go.

The first day I walked away from the gravel,

I fell. That was the day I learned

staying upright is not what’s most important.

Read Full Post »

Up the Hill

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 22, 2018| 2 Comments »

 

 

You walk fast,

she said, and

I said, I was walking

fast to keep up

with you, and

she said, I was

walking fast to

keep up with you

and we laughed

at ourselves as

our feet found

a new rhythm,

our hearts, too.

Read Full Post »

Getaway

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2017| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

Even on a Monday it can happen,

you step out of the office

and instead of going to your car

or making another call or running

to the bank, your feet

and legs conspire to move you

toward the woods where after

only ten minutes you are more breath

than brain, more here than anywhere else—

water drips in the creek bed,

sunlight pushes through empty branches,

and at your sides your arms swing

as if they were made for this.

Read Full Post »

I’m Not Saying We Shouldn’t Be Angry

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 12, 2017| 89 Comments »

 

 

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be angry.

Anger seems reasonable. But perhaps

we will do what I’ve heard the Inuit do—

spend the emotion on walking, walk a line

until all the anger has left our bodies.

The moment the Inuit notice the anger is gone,

replaced, perhaps, by sadness or fear,

compassion or just a quietness,

they mark that spot with an object

to show the extent of their anger.

And perhaps, if we’re lucky, when we walk

this way, it will be a long enough walk

that we arrive at each other’s doors,

object in hand, and when the object

leaves our grip, we’ll be able to use our hands

to greet each other, touch each other’s faces,

point to the horizon to all the other places

we might choose to walk now together.

Read Full Post »

One Month Out of ICU

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

walking four blocks with my mother,

every step an arrival,

every step a reason to praise

Read Full Post »

Just When You Needed It

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

Before you slog the next mile,

God sits beside you

and rubs your feet and ankles,

tells you jokes,

and spills his heart to you—

the next day,

still exhausted,

you find yourself laughing

grateful to have feet.

 

Read Full Post »

Directions

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 10, 2016| 4 Comments »

It is not that the path
has disappeared. It is only
that, stunned with grief
and kicked by fear,
we sometimes lose our will
to put one foot
in front of the other.
But we are not lost.
Already in the dark
we have found each other.
What astonishes is
that there are so many of us,
and already
we are building bridges
made of light.
The world shakes,
we stumble
and we help each other rise,
and now it is time
for us again to put one foot in front of the other—
not to escape what frightens us
but to walk unflinchingly
toward the messy center of things.
The path we choose now
is not one we’ve walked or even seen before,
the path is one that appears
beneath our feet
with each step,
and we persist,
travelers in the frozen dark
who begin to see the light as it shapes the horizon
and know, though it’s cold,
that the change we dream of
has already begun to arrive.

Read Full Post »

But It’s Not the Same

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 22, 2014| 4 Comments »

Beside the moss
beside red rock

we walk, we walk
to the falls and talk

and long, long after
you have gone,

the empty space
you left near me

walks on with me
walks on.

Read Full Post »

As Far As My Life Has Gotten Me

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

Love says, ‘I am everything.’
Wisdom says, ‘I am nothing.’
Between these two my life flows.
–Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

It is enough today
to walk. The road
is gravel. To the left,
dry fields. To the right,
dry grass and sage. Cottonwoods
line the wash. The time
was once when steeper
was better and faster
was the only way.
I was not happier then,
only faster. I still
throw my arms
up to the sky
and say here,
here I am, here I am.
My heart, seeing
the crow silhouetted
against the sun
still rises, nearly bursts
with strange joy.
Oh wings!
The old apple tree
beside the road
drops a misshapen apple
into my hand. Yellow
and tart, it is sweeter
than the bitterness of longing.
I eat it all.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »