walking (Remove filter)
1000 MILES IN 2024: 1st Running Total
Thursday the eighth of February,
and eleven point seven miles I’ve walked,
a running total in defiance
of the enemy within,
of voices in my head who’d rather
I sit quiet, with nose to screen,
consuming crap made just for me,
algorhythmically designed
to rob me of humanity,
of poetry in my walking’s rhythm,
a miracle that’s in full flow,
performed by those who gave...
Thursday 8th February 2024 10:41 am
Walking Back To Happiness on Friday 26th May 2023 (KISS and TOFFEE)
Desperate to get out and exercise
My increasingly bloated physiology,
I follow advice that I’ve learned from life,
Two magic formulae, KISS and TOFFEE,
My first is: Keep It Simple Stupid!
Then: Time on Feet,-without the t!-well spent, I hope.
And I follow the wisdom undiluted,
Contained in the words of Alexander Pope:
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!
So on Frid...
Sunday 28th May 2023 12:20 pm
Walking Back to Happiness
Last week I managed to walk six miles or so.
This Tuesday I walked three miles along the canal.
My God it was warm and how thirsty I was at the end!
I went straight to the pub for a pint, to rest and reflect.
One hour and fifteen minutes to walk three and a bit miles.
And here at the bar, by my side was a man in a wheelchair.
He had had both legs amputated below the knee.
This...
Friday 26th May 2023 1:00 am
Spanish Stillness
Walking
The world around me is how it used to be:
Fresh, alive, peaceful, welcoming.
Alone but not alone,
I’m part of this world again,
not fighting it
not worrying.
Not competing and being judged.
A modest meal awaits,
with good wine,
a shower
A bed.
Tuesday 22nd February 2022 7:44 am
La Faba - 2017
After the Meseta,
after the heat,
after the stones.
The green hills
the shady paths
the views.
The way is rocky and steep.
Don’t stumble,
keep your balance and
Breathe.
Peace around you.
And then there it is – La Faba.
I have arrived
And part of me will never leave.
Tuesday 22nd February 2022 7:26 am
Somewhere in Spain
The walking
The peace
And You.
Just you, in a foreign land.
Remembering what its like to be you.
No agendas No pressure
No deadlines.
Time only matters when you are leaving in the morning and when you need to sleep.
The walking
Seeing things and feeling again.
Around you no-one is rich or poor,
everyone has a story and a reason to be there
to be shared and reco...
Sunday 20th February 2022 10:37 am
The Wonder
Kicking through the moss
in the cooling evening air
I’m staring down the barrel
of a living Rivelin Valley
Crickets clicking in the tall grass
bramble searching for a shin
I stoop to flick away
the tickle of a nettle
caught under my tongue
O, why could I not have felt this way
at twenty one
To know myself
my capabilities, my limitations
to feel this comfortable
in my own skin
...
Wednesday 29th December 2021 3:59 pm
Chiropody
each day I went for a walk in the woods
with COVID you look after your ticker
you tend to see the same folk each day
they smile as I offer the faintest flicker
I'd copped a wan couple making the circuit
a pair regular as clockwork out every day
then I saw the woman strolling on her own
had her partner upped and gone away?
a week later I caught her eye and stopped
...Tuesday 6th October 2020 11:06 am
Holly Hagg
Pen devoid of poems
adventure long overdue
living room carpet
growing long in the tooth
I’m pining for movement
so keen to get out
I’ll go walking down
to Holly Hagg
Little glimpses at normality
haloed by golden rays
There’s no poison
in the idle river
no politics
in the quiet horse
cantering to
another chew
The clouds of working day
part while I’m out walking
bathed in nat...
Friday 7th August 2020 4:43 pm
The God in the Mountain
Flogita - 13 September 2019
It stands
a great sail fin of rock
high towering - dominant
cloud mazed
haze hidden seat of hidden gods
and we, yes,
we would rise to their heights,
stand in their pantheon
to observe the tiny world
beneath.
For from this seat
Prometheus set forth
and with Athena
set us in that tiny mortal world -
yet now we stand
proud o...
Saturday 28th September 2019 10:18 am
Eastbourne
stone, stone, shell, flint
the rattle of a beach
of beach steps
on stones
the endless stone rattle
walking
beaches
groyne divided
beaches
And the waves
of a leaden sea
Monday 27th August 2018 5:53 pm
I Walk
I walk to clear my mind,
Why must I have all these thoughts circulating in my head?
I walk to get away.
Why is everything getting to me?
I walk to forget.
Why does the past loom behind me?
I walk...
I walk...
I walk...
I walk because that is the only thing I know to do.
Tuesday 14th August 2018 10:48 am
Above the Valley
As we pass through this Autumn realm,
See the valley bound wraiths of mist
Withdrawing like a tide from the willow
Islands of the marshland
With their starkly black boughed trees
Damply dripping with the mist's remains,
Chill air swirls in the rising breeze, and
Black starlings line the wires beyond a barn
But the red kite in his higher flight
Is lost to sight
...
Wednesday 1st November 2017 2:35 pm
Druid Lane
We came upon
A mystic way leading nowhere but the hills.
Floored in leaves, tree roofed, bank-bound
Untrodden but by wanderers for centuries past.
What lay beyond, worthy of such industry?
Perhaps a long forgotten hearth tenured by shepherd or crone.
Or did this tended track pass on to a hilltop way:
Miles now lost to grass and sheep,
A one-time druidic path to some time-er...
Thursday 15th June 2017 4:30 pm
Nant Lluest-Fach
Walking, I discover
Hills I never knew in thirty years of passing;
Valleys, deserted, hidden in folds and time:
Mair says once there was a community here
Self contained, sufficient unto itself
Walking, I find
Landscapes we could have seen before, perhaps shared
Their riches, dreamed their past, known their present:
I'm told these Druid hills sing history itself
Sing...
Wednesday 12th April 2017 2:00 pm
The Template of my Being
Been there
Done it
Eaten it
Drunk it
Almost drowned in it
Nearly died
Praised it
Cursed it
Dodged it
Traversed it
Just you name it
I’ll have tried
Smoked it
Snorted it
Been traumatised by it
Reduced to tears by it
Laughed and cried
Run it
Walked it
Chased it
Caught it
Wished I hadn’t bothered s...
Monday 24th June 2013 4:00 pm
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