Friday, November 9, 2018

November 9

I began a new reading project today inspired by this post on the Sew and Sow Life blog.



I ordered a used copy that is in excellent shape. The idea of the book is, in Ted Kooser's words:
"In the autumn of 1998, during my recovery from surgery and radiation for cancer, I began taking a two-mile walk each morning. ... During the previous summer, depressed by my illness, preoccupied by the routines of my treatment, and feeling miserably sorry for myself, I'd all but given up on reading and writing. Then, as autumn began to fade and winter came on, my health began to improve. One morning in November, following my walk, I surprised myself by trying my hand at a poem. Soon I was writing every day.

Several years before, my friend Jim Harrison and I had carried on a correspondence in haiku. As a variation on this, I began pasting my morning poems on postcards and sending them to Jim, whose generosity, patience and good humor are here acknowledged. What follows is a selection of one hundred of those postcards."

Isn't that just lovely?

Every day I am going to read the poem that corresponds to the present date. I don't expect to post a poem each day, and maybe not even each week, but occasionally I will post one with notes and perhaps pictures of my own walk on that same date, twenty years later, and in New Hampshire, not Nebraska.

november 9

    Rainy and cold.


The sky hangs thin and wet on its clothesline.

A deer of gray vapor steps through the foreground,
under the dripping, lichen-rusted trees.

Halfway across the next field,
the distance (or can that be the future?)
is sealed up in tin like an old barn.

I so love that first line. Such a unique concept. And I think the distance/future is just brilliant. A lovely poem, I feel.

I haven't been very faithful to my idea of walking often up and down my road. I did a few times, and even took photos, but then didn't have the chance to post about them. I do hope to get back in the groove of writing much more often. It is good for me to stop and examine my life. Even if no one ever reads the postings, I feel better when I really take the time to pay attention. So, today with this new reading scheme, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take a walk as Mr. Kooser did, though mine is not two miles. It is half an hour. I dare not walk up the hill into the woods this time of year, but come winter I hope to do so.

Today I was so thankful to see geese. I took this little video. Click to make it larger and turn your volume up, and there they are!! A little magic in the skies, methinks. And you may hear the cheery little chickadee.



The beech and oak are the only trees that still have their leaves.


When we moved here in 1981, we brought an oak tree we had recently planted at our other home. It is quite a mighty oak now.


We've noticed many little oaks have sprung up between this oak and Margaret, Matthew, and Hazel's house. Just for fun today, I decided to count the saplings. There are 19!! Our original oak was the only one on our 200+ acres, and in a few decades, they will line the road. Amazing, amazing.

Nebby and the sheep were curious as I walked back and forth.


I walked from 1:30-2, and it was just so pleasant. Cool, not cold. No precipitation, and all those lovely brownish colors everywhere.

26 comments:

  1. I love your idea! The walking and the connection to poetry is wonderful. I wish I lived closer and could take some of those walks with you and talk about poetry while we walk!

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    1. Aren't you just so nice to say this! Thank you, and I wish the same.

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  2. Nan, this is just perfect and, honestly, so very you...ha! I'd join you and Robin in your walks. I know very little about poetry, but I can talk books until the cows come home - but you don't have cows. Hmmm...my walking has been very, very good for me. The poem was lovely.

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    1. There are so many good poets who write clearly about things readers can understand. I studied the hard to understand poets in college, and frankly it wasn't a lot of fun. I think the best poetry is that which touches the reader's heart and soul. If you check out the "poems" tab under the blog header picture, I think you'll find a lot that you would like. And you don't have to know anything about poetry to feel their meanings. I am inspired by both you and Robin, and hope I can walk more often.

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  3. Such a gift to see the geese overhead! And speaking of gifts, the poem is lovely. It does make me a little envious of author's gift--why can't I write like that? Now when I see the November sky such as we had a few days ago I'll think of it as hanging on its clothesline. Today is gloriously sunny. I love both kinds of days.

    I think we must have a dozen oak saplings around. RH said in July that he would move them this fall to better locations. I wonder if that will get done? Maybe.

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    1. It is indeed a gift! Did RH offer or did you have to ask? haha.

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    2. Nan, I didn't ask him and I bet he's told me at least 3 times he was going to do it. Not one has been moved yet, but then not many 76 year old men are still working in the construction business so I don't think I'll nag him about those saplings. And he does have hundreds of black walnuts lying on the ground that need to be picked up too!

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    3. Good for him!!! That keeps him in shape, for sure!

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  4. That is a lovely poem, and nice pictures that you posted. I need to be walking more (much more) too, but I let my busyness and stress at work keep me from getting up and about, using it as an excuse.

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    1. Thank you! It's weird isn't it - how stress stops us from exercising, but exercising is the thing to make the stress better.

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  5. And I would love to walk along beside you, Robin and Kay. I'm sure we would not be at a loss for conversation!

    I read this book of Kooser's in my pre-blogging days, but I recall that I enjoyed it quite well. I'm eager to hear your thoughts on his poetry about Nebraska. I love that first line, too.

    I love seeing all your photos (and the video)! I'm glad TK has inspired you to walk and photograph your NH world for us.

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    1. That would be so much fun! I read the second poem today, and it was just as great.

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  6. Lovely poem! And thanks for the video of the poetry in the sky. The calls of the wild geese are so evocative, aren't they? Never fail to move me.
    Mary

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    1. You are a poet, yourself! "poetry in the sky" - beautiful.

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  7. This sounds like a good reading project, manageable and not overwhelming. As for walking, you know I am a walker (and occasional runner), and love and need walking very much for my physical and mental wellbeing. Therefore, simply out of my own experience, I urge you to keep up the walks - you live in the perfect place for it!

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    1. I've always been an "exerciser" but now my knee isn't so great so I've let it go. But when I walk it feels better so I know I've just been lazy! Well, and busy these past five years. Now I have more time, so will really try. Thanks for the encouragement.

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  8. A lovely idea and I love your oak tree. I have a Japanese Maple I bought as a tiny shred of a thing 13 years ago and it's now taller than me with my arm right up in the air!

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  9. A lovely post, Nan, and it was inspirational to read Ted Kooser's personal (and writing) journey — thank you. It's so important to count our blessings, and remember them when we cross a bump in the road.

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    1. Thank you, and I like what you wrote at the end.

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  10. This is an inspired idea......I just read the post for 11 12 and then this one....Not a poet I'm familiar with, so thank you, Nan!

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    1. Thank you!! I'm very pleased to have introduced you to him!

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  11. I loved everything about this post Nan. We know from personal experience about the healing properties of walks in nature. Ted Kooser's poet resonates. And I like the idea of taking more or less the same walk each day and thinking ... really noticing and thinking ... about what you see.

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    1. It is a beautiful thing to walk the same walk. Things change every single day in nature. I've said it before, but I so, so appreciate your notes to me. Always kind. Always thoughtful. We are such kindred spirits, you and me.

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  12. Your geese video is so lovely and wild! It reminded me of Aldo Leopold, who wrote, "I once knew an educated lady, banded by Phi Beta Kappa, who told me that she had never heard or seen the geese that twice a year proclaim the revolving seasons to her well-insulated roof. Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers."

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    1. Wow! What an interesting thought. Ideally, you could have both.

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