Wednesday February 19, 2014
As a lifelong lover of reading and writing, I’ve written my fair share of poems, and a lot of them are either about hurdling or include something hurdle-related. Yeah that’s me; everybody else is writing poems about flowers and trees and I’m writing about hurdles.
I find that writing poetry is a good medium by which to probe into the deeper layers of ordinary life, so that the ordinary is appreciated for how extraordinary it actually is. Earlier this week I wrote a poem that was inspired by one of my many distance runs in my neighborhood. It’s entitled “Hurdles on my Mind.” Here it is:
Hurdles in my Mind 2/15/14
I run down a road that doesn’t end.
Past construction sites,
bus stops,
family barbecues,
growling dogs,
children drawing suns on the sidewalk,
teenagers hanging out on the corner.
I run up hills,
I run down hills,
I run on winding turns,
past street lights,
stop signs.
I run past office buildings,
banks,
shopping centers,
single-family homes.
Then out into the countryside,
past farmhouses,
cows and horses behind fences.
I run in the searing heat,
through the driving rain,
with the wind in my face,
with the wind at my back.
I run past strangers,
I run past friends.
Past geese and songbirds
and pigeons on the rooftops.
Every ninth step
I pretend there’s a hurdle in my way.
I push off the back leg, drive the knee,
hammer down the lead arm,
keep on going.
This is how I dance.
This is how I celebrate life.
