Poem-a-day, April 1: forty-three giant steps backwards

THE SHOES OF WANDERING

1.

Squatting at the rack
in the Store of the Salvation
Army, putting on, one after one,
these shoes strangers have died from, I discover
the eldershoes of my feet,
that take my feet
as their first feet, clinging
down to the least knuckle and corn.

And I walk out now,
in dead shoes, in the new light,
on the steppingstones
of someone else's wandering,
a twinge
in this foot or that saying
turn or stay or take
forty-three giant steps
backwards
, frightened
I may already have lost
the way: the first step, the Crone
who scried the crystal said, shall be
to lose the way.


***

Hi Friends,

Today's poem opens section III of The Book of Nightmares (1971) by Galway Kinnell.

As a reminder, you can make my life easier, and keep poem-a-day out of junk folders, by joining this Yahoo! Group list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/poemaday_tgifreytag

After a few more days of poems, I'll only be sending poem-a-day to the group email list.

You can always learn more about National Poetry Month and sign up for a more official-like poem-a-day list at www.poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets.

Best,
Ellen

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