When the sun comes out, is there anything better than a walk? It can be brisk. It can be a stroll. The pace doesn't matter, as long as you can take the world in with all your senses. Yesterday I posted some thoughts on what walks can do for writers on one of my other blogs, WRITE AT YOUR OWN RISK (it offers up "shop talk with the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.") If you follow the link below, you'll see a poem by William Brighty Rands. I thought it was by Robert Louis Stevenson, but my memory fooled me. My brain's default poet for children is Stevenson, and sometimes it goes there even when directed other places.
This is not the first time I advocate getting away from your desk and getting some fresh air. I've been known to do it before. But this time I added pretty pictures. Check it out.
Here's a peek at the poem and at 3 of the photos. The poem answers the question I posed in today's post title, in case you couldn't guess it.
Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
with the wonderful waters around you curled,
and the wonderful grasses upon your breast,
World, you are beautifully dressed....
(See more here.)
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| Leaves in sunshine and shade.... |
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| A blue woman falling apart on a wall.... |
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| A raspberry, plain and simple and not so simple.... |
The Poetry Friday round-up today is hosted by Amy over at The Poem Farm. Head over there to see what other people have posted.
What a fabulous post -- and I hadn't seen the Rands poem before -- a gem. Great photos and advice. Thanks for the nudge and the inspiration :).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the poem and gorgeous pictures, Julie. I've been reading in Thich Nhat Hanh's PEACE IS EVERY STEP this week and came across this: "Be aware of the contact between your feet and the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."
ReplyDeleteLove taking walks, discovering, wondering, wandering... and love this simple-notsimple raspberry picture best of all! The best advice I can give writers: live a life worth writing about. Go. Do! Thanks for sharing your walks.
ReplyDeleteI love that 'great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World' too, Julie & appreciate your post(s). The photos alone invite me out. The raspberry is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for a lovely start to my day!
ReplyDeleteA great post and a great link!
ReplyDeleteglad I drifted your way, Julie!
Julie,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about the importance of getting out into the world. The first field trip I took my second graders on every school year was a walk in the woods in September. We'd find salamanders under rotting logs, insect galls, all kinds of fungi and lichens, glacial erratics. It's amazing the wonders of nature we can see when carefully observing our outdoor surroundings.
My students got so excited about everything they saw on the field trip--and were eager to write about their experience when we returned to school.
We are nature crazy over here, always on a walk, getting to know the trees. Lovely post, lovely berry - thanks for the wander!
ReplyDeleteI love this poem.. You don't find many poems that use the word "wonderful" successfully like this one does. I love walking for conquering writing snags. It's also a great way to catalog walking styles if you're on a populated path.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all of my poems start with a walk. Thanks for sharing it and remind us to get out of our chairs.
ReplyDeleteHaving already been out into the wonderful world this morning, I'm enjoying the dark cave of your brain (and of Poetry Friday). Thanks for the reminder, Julie.
ReplyDelete(I found trolley tracks grown over with tufty grass where I'd never noticed them before.)
Having already been out into the wonderful world this morning, I'm enjoying the dark cave of your brain (and of Poetry Friday). Thanks for the reminder, Julie.
ReplyDelete(I found trolley tracks grown over with tufty grass where I'd never noticed them before.)