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
Labels: NPM