Sunday, July 15, 2012

slip across the land


art & utility blend

some trails are true to what land and stream
tell us is the best way forward
with the least bulldozing of our wants upon the land,

there’s an elegance when a way slips across the Earth
the way the Earth most easily allows,
as if trail and Earth are partners in a dance,
each adjusting to the other,
we modern humans enjoys the power of imagining
where we want a railroad, a road, a trail,
and making it so,

I love an interstate highway
and having the right vehicle on the right road
to get me to where I want,
to where I need to go,

today, though, I savor a trail
that native peoples followed for thousands of years
to get onto the Smokies main ride
and from that same gap into the valleys below,


the land told the trail where it could go:
when it should climb,
when it should drop,
when it should be in the stream bed for a hundred yards,

the trail fits the land
and the land can still express itself:
the flowers reveal themselves as if in gardens


and each step on the trail can be a delight,
even with the effort of the hike,
and really the effort is what my body and soul need from this day,
the grace of the trail is a bonus,
art blends with utility.
by Henry Walker
July 9, ’12

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