Friday 23 March 2012

Spring light


Shadows on trees, just up the road

So we are having a spring that's more like summer (it makes me dread to think what summer will be...) but our news is that in a few days we set off south for visits, a mini road trip and a few other things. I didn't want to leave that musicals post up as my end-of-term assignment however so instead here's a poem. It's an old one (an online Poetry Bus one) that first saw the light of PCs here but has since had a tweak or two to end up reading like this:


Different walks

There is walking,
And then there is this:

Giant steps stretched out around a tiny town,
Bright lights that hang just too low down,
Dry mouth, long night, somewhere to be,
Feet moving, moving, constantly.

And then again there is walking,
And then again there is this:

The pansy by the path with its soft, soft face,
The daffodils singing uninvited, as ever,
The blackbirds busy, everything just so,
So vibrant, so violent, so full, this life.


RF 2010.


I guess it's a kind of spring poem... certainly the daffodils are hard at work here right now.

We'll try to post a few photos from the road (maybe we'll even manage a mystery tour like the one we had back here) but in the meantime here's a song I heard on "Glee" recently (great show, I only half watch it for the small one...). The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (first released in 1964 by Dionne Warwick, I think) but here it's sung, not by April or young Kurt, but by one of my old favourites:




x

12 comments:

Kat Mortensen said...

Lovely poem, Rachel. The "there is this", so rich.

Titus said...

I like that very much.

Ooh, ooh, do a mystery tour. Go on, do, do!

Perfect reminder of just how incredible Ella Fitzgerald's voice is.

hope said...

Oh try another mystery tour, knowing full well I won't have a clue but will enjoy trying to find one. :)

Rachel Fox said...

We might do at least some mystery tour while we're away. I was looking back at the 2009 one today and it really made me smile. I loved how some people really got competitive whilst others just made (some very good) quips!
x

The Solitary Walker said...

Really like this poem, Rachel.

Rachel Fox said...

If I'm not mistaken the champion of the 2009 Mystery Tour Challenge, SW!

Yes, I'm working on a small collection and this poem is one of the focal points so far. The whole thing is centred on walking and the outside (not original particularly but what I'm working on anyway...). Maybe you'll like it.
x

The Solitary Walker said...

Did I really get competitive, Rachel? That wasn't very Zen of me... Maybe next time I'll try the less time-consuming, laid-back, quipping approach :-)

Looking forward to your outside collection.

Rachel Fox said...

You're so elusive, SW, that I don't think I even have an email address for you. Anyway, if you ever give me such a thing I could email you some other poetry links that are not for public airing as yet. Mine is
author@crowd-pleasers.net

x

A Cuban In London said...

Gosh, that poem touched me deep inside! I loved the beginning: "There is walking/And then there is this". The way you nailed it down with "life" at the end. Beautiful.

Thanks for the shoutout about Fonseca. Missed it completely. Will try to dig it out on the podcast, if they have one.

Greetings from London.

Rachel Fox said...

The Cerys Matthews show is always on the i-player for a week - from now

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dxsy1

Fonseca was on in the last half hour of the show.

x

Niamh B said...

Enjoy the road trip - gosh but you get round to a lot of rambling don't you!

Roxana said...

i so love this! this is my spring, too! :-)