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:
Thanks for sharing this.
Oh! Perfect, isn't it?
A lovely poem, which speaks to the close connection between mother and child.
gautami, you're welcome.
pauline, I think Nancy Willard is a practically perfect writer of both poetry and prose!
paris p, yes!
What a great little poem, really captures both the vivid sense of imagination and the bonds people form with each other. Thanks for sharing.
I love this, and I've never even heard of Nancy Willard. Thanks for the introduction!
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!
Oh, you must know how I love this! Adore it...having lived both sides.
You always come up with perfect little gems!
Wemdy, I KNEW you would love this! I almost dedicated this post to YOU! I should have!
There. I did! (Sorry about the "m" in your name....)
This was very touching. Thanks for sharing it with us. :) XXOO
Thanks for the introduction to a poet I've not heard of before!
Beautiful -- thank you for bringing it to us Pepek!
Delightful imagery of you as a horse! This is an incredible poem -- I LOVE it.
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.
A beautiful poem. Another writer I must look up :)
What a poem! I'm a servant to small hands, too.
Yeah, most of us are servants to small hands! :) Thanks, everyone, for stopping by. See you next Thursday.
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