Thursday, June 28, 2007

PT: A Summer Poem (especially for Wendy)


Walking Poem


How beautifully the child I carry on my back
teaches me to become a horse.
How quickly I learn to stay
between shafts, blinders, and whips,
working the plough

and the wagon loaded with hay,
or to break out of trot and run
til we're flying through cold streams.
He who kicks my commands
knows I am ten times his size

and that I am servant to small hands.
It is in mowed fields I move best,
watching the barn grow toward me
the child quiet, his sleep piled like hay
on my back as we slip over the dark hill

and I carry the sun away.



--Nancy Willard, "Water Walker."

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18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this.

Pauline said...

Oh! Perfect, isn't it?

paris parfait said...

A lovely poem, which speaks to the close connection between mother and child.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

gautami, you're welcome.

pauline, I think Nancy Willard is a practically perfect writer of both poetry and prose!

paris p, yes!

Anonymous said...

What a great little poem, really captures both the vivid sense of imagination and the bonds people form with each other. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I love this, and I've never even heard of Nancy Willard. Thanks for the introduction!

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

dr, thanks for stopping by!

split ends, Nancy Willard has a wonderful novel called Things Invisible To See, which I really love, and another called Sister Water. She has several books of poetry, and children's books as well!

wendy said...

Oh, you must know how I love this! Adore it...having lived both sides.

You always come up with perfect little gems!

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Wemdy, I KNEW you would love this! I almost dedicated this post to YOU! I should have!

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

There. I did! (Sorry about the "m" in your name....)

Tammy Brierly said...

This was very touching. Thanks for sharing it with us. :) XXOO

Crafty Green Poet said...

Thanks for the introduction to a poet I've not heard of before!

Rob Kistner said...

Beautiful -- thank you for bringing it to us Pepek!

Clare said...

Delightful imagery of you as a horse! This is an incredible poem -- I LOVE it.

Pam said...

I used to pretend I was a horse when I was young and my kids did the same. Of course, I had to join them. Love it, Pepek, it brought back memories.

Kay Cooke said...

A beautiful poem. Another writer I must look up :)

Rethabile said...

What a poem! I'm a servant to small hands, too.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Yeah, most of us are servants to small hands! :) Thanks, everyone, for stopping by. See you next Thursday.