Walk Like a Poet

                                                     

I joined this online group, Walk Like a Poet. I thought about it too long and did not get the original $5/monthly rate. However, I now signed up for the annual rate of $70/year. It is going to be interesting to interact with strangers regarding poetry and time spent out of doors. The latter is a favorite activity of mine although I currently spend my early morning hours on the computer with online courses. The sun is coming up and I shall begin my early a.m. time walking the property today. I trust that it will become habit-forming....

.....and with a poem "in my pocket." What a very clever idea! I would like to bring this activity to the senior center. Poetry and walking, sharing and writing - it all works for me and would be something totally new and adventurous.

The program is a weekly experience. One poem posted once a week. Check it out!

https://www3.skool.com/poet/about?utm_source=skooldotcom&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=user_profile_page

                                                   

Then I found another site for free that the same creator, Kate Boelhauf, has online called 100 Walks. And so I gleefully signed up on that site and am sorting, shuffling, getting acquainted with its offerings. 

https://100walks.com/

from the website:

Because when you walk regularly, you give yourself time to notice. You start looking more closely at places you thought you knew. You follow things that make you curious. You discover tiny worlds, unexpected paths, good sticks, strange objects, changing seasons, and things you probably would have walked right past before.

Into the backyard and down by the creek bed I go ~ with the poem below:

A Bird Came Down the Walk

by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

A Bird, came down the Walk –

He did not know I saw –

He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew

From a convenient Grass –

And then hopped sidewise to the Wall

To let a Beetle pass –

He glanced with rapid eyes,

That hurried all abroad –

They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,

He stirred his Velvet Head. –

Like one in danger, Cautious,

I offered him a Crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers,

And rowed him softer Home –

Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,

Leap, plashless as they swim.

Praying Mantis Poem

          ultrasound voice = praying mantis

he/she, a super Mantodea of insects

“faster than a speeding bullet”

eating voraciously at the bug buffet

praying but alas, truly preying

not to intrigue you but the female mantis

takes care of her lover by biting

his head off as he locks

inside her, yes, he is fighting

losing the battle his lower 

nervous system takes over

he continues his mating. 

males, lower nervous systems

(poet clears throat)

they symbolize spirituality

mindfulness for some

patience, quiet focus

and then he/she remarkably

sees 3-D with stereo vision

moving his/her head 180 degrees

viewing with precision

please, enough said

the praying mantis 

is not dead, the great

pretender falls into

decaying leaves

one of the Dead Leaf clan

           totally appalling, i say

       totally appealing, others say

joanconnor2026

Notes aside:

This poem was written for a Story Circle Network poetry group I participate in monthly. The prompt was "voice." The praying mantis subject emerged as I read the wonderful book that was donated to my Little Free Library bookmobile, Eric Carle's ANIMALS ANIMALS. It is a collection of poetry by various poets. Of course Eric Carle's famous collages fill the pages beyond one's imagination.

Obviously my poem is not for children!! I did not intend it to be almost rated "R," but it became what it became. 

The photo is a stock photo from the internet. My photo of a praying mantis is definitely not as precise, but I took it the day I wrote the poem. Hubby discovered a mantis on the back of the golf cart.

Praying the Scriptures

 I just added Lectio 365 to my iPhone. The app cannot be put on my mac.

 https://lectio365.com/.                           Pray the Bible everyday.

Lectio divina is Latin for “divine reading,” “spiritual reading,” or “holy reading.” Lectio divina, according to author and spiritual director Becky Eldredge, is “a slow, rhythmic reading and praying of a Scripture passage” (from Busy Lives & Restless Souls, Loyola Press, 2017). 

I choose to be more prayerful and need a nudge morning, noon and night. This might do it for me.

I have heard about this app previously but in conversation regarding one's prayer life has been discussed within a beadisciple class I am currently taking.

There is also another more intense online prayer life through https://saint-luke.net/wado/  that is interesting. I shall look into that option after a few months with Lectio 365.

I am going to start with the Lectio 365 on my phone and spend a few minutes three times daily with the Lord.

One's prayer life needs to be sustained and developed. It doesn't just happen. It takes initiative and commitment.

P.R.A.Y. = Pause Reflect Ask Yield "Slow down and connect with God," the Lectio site says.

I shall and I will be consistent. With this decision and attempting to lose weight I have my goals and my priorities.

Here is a favorite poem about prayer from https://readalittlepoetry.com/2025/10/28/the-prayer-by-mary-oliver/

Praying                                                                Mary Oliver

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

I shall listen for "another voice."

Amen!

Wendall Barry

 

Wendell Berry (1934 - 2026)

I have never read Wendall Berry’s poetry. 

I have never followed his writing, followed his philosophy.

I have truly missed a “gentle giant.”

And so I shall begin with one poem, one day, one seeking......

His death this week has instilled a yearning in me to know more as I read about him.

Coupled with Dolly Parton’s death, both artists loved their home place, their home state and were raised with Christian values.

A wonderful article linked below extolls Berry’s desire for a simple agrarian lifestyle.

I quote one paragraph:

The beloved writer and environmentalist, who died at age 92 on Monday, Aug. 31, in his Kentucky home, was an academic himself but left the ivory tower for his home county of Henry, Kentucky. There, he farmed and wrote for most of his life, mostly with pencil and paper in an old family cabin.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/wendell-berry-writer-and-farmer-was-extolled-many-modern-day-prophet

Today’s selection honoring Wendall Barry:

                               The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/peace-wild-things-0/