Walking Thoughts

Bob, , , ,

Afternoons kneading walking-thoughts, reeling daydreams and the blue of mid-August skies, stopping for garden-tomato sandwiches, these knapsack wanderings,

And if Saturn is a seaside holiday, and Neptune perplexed of axis, here the geese in the shade of the oak tree, and here and everywhere, time has a nervous system, and space the gravity of cause,

Life threaded with time and place, raveled and unraveled, swept up in cloud bursts of the sun peering through, squeezed at its side till it balloons and grins, and these walks as the Earth spins, and sometimes end like a felled season, and begins with feet in the green grass,

As if I hadn’t charged my blood stream with sunlight and chance, fate and opportunity, housed this expanse in the meanderings of love and dreams, wrapped up in the onset of the present,

The afternoons on bench with book, or just sitting there looking out into the mesa clouds, and for this hour, vast as the summer fields,

And the trunk and branches are what’s left of a sudden explosion (time is relative) from the seedling hatched, as the mountains are quick to ascend and descend, and puddles are forever (somehow), and the kids in the neighborhood are not quite Picasso with graffiti and first ask of their spray cans the permission of the grasshoppers in my untamed lawn, and not be outdone by the quick gallop of the yellow of the dandelion in spring, the orange-yellow-gold of the black-eyed Susans in August, the rain as if falls from the gutter-less roofs.

21 thoughts on “Walking Thoughts”

  2. From the git-go, this poem soars into outer space with Saturn and Neptune and in the same breath, you mention geese and shade and oak tree. Truly a marvel how so much is covered in so few words and maybe that’s the great potential of summer. As always, so many great lines “and the kids in the neighborhood are not quite Picasso with graffiti.” Great job. I’m in Milwaukee visiting my parents and this is a great way to start a day that will include lots of walking around.

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    1. I am in general a fan of street art. But it would be nice when the kids started out they found some of the beaten path wall to hone their craft. Before they shared it with us. Oh well. The planet and geese, like you said, summer is full of that potential. Enjoy Milwaukee! Thanks!

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  3. What a lovely poem-walk you took us on here! I enjoyed all the vivid details and these phrases:

    “these knapsack wanderings”

    “Neptune perplexed of axis”

    “time has a nervous system”

    *the whole of the third stanza and that lovely phrase “end like a felled season” – love that!

    *the whole of the fourth stanza

    “the quick gallop of the yellow of the dandelion in spring,”

    Refreshing! 🙂

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  6. ” and the kids in the neighborhood are not quite Picasso with graffiti and first ask of their spray cans the permission of the grasshoppers in my untamed lawn” 😍. Loving your prose-poetry, really inspiring

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  8. All of a sudden reading this, Li Po came to mind. Not the style perhaps, but the delight, insight and engagement with all that is. A thread that runs through all of your poetry. So many great lines and images here Bob (as always).

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    1. I remember having a small collection of Chinese Poetry when I was younger. And how connected to the poets, who always seemed to be wandering around the countryside in all manner of season and weather. I wish I still had that volume. Thank you for reminded me of that. That means a lot to me.

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