DON’T WALK FAST

Rock … fallen leaves … soil.

At first just listen … after a mile

or so sound will distill in your body.

Find rhythm … keep that pace …

then slowly refocus mind & ear

so as to attend the measured silence

between boot swing & boot fall.

There’s the music … call it that.

It was not here before you came

won’t be here when you’re gone.

The spaces pulse … connecting links

making sound complete & movement whole.

Do not avoid the steeper slopes.

Against grade the intervals will

widen & deepen so that you

will hear the lovely up-

curving arc of trail.

  —George Ellison

 

Painting by Elizabeth Ellison

The Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities presents The Wilderness Poet, George Ellison, and his wife, Elizabeth Ellison, renowned visual artist and illustrator of her husband’s works. A reading and art exhibit are in the Great Room at Weymouth on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 4 p.m., $10 for members and $15 for non-members. A reception will follow.

Recommended Posts