One of my writer friends emails out a poem a day in April. It’s lovely to receive the great variety she selects. I’m not going to emulate her daily discipline, but here’s a poem and a few thoughts to share with you.
Most of my early attempts at poetry centered around emotional times. My first college love. My failing marriage. Having been happily married for many years, I have to go back to an earlier time to find personal poems.
I guess that’s why verse novels have become such a part of my life. They let me put words to my character’s angst, while living my own life on a more even keel.
Taking a Walk remained only four lines for a long time, until a poet critiquer told me there was more to say. So I added two more verses. Years later, in a calligraphy class, I made a little booklet on labyrinths, and created a different set of verses to accompany those first four lines.
So here’s to labyrinths and finding our way home to ourselves.
Taking a Walk
Taking a walk around the block
circles from and back again.
Rather would I walk from toward
for we always take back with us.
*Taking a path through the labyrinth—
though Theseus cheated with a string—
he knew the game was only won
by facing the monster found within.
*
You can never go wrong in the maze of life
unless you stand still— Even then—
no matter where on the road you wait
you meet yourself, again and again.
Kate Harrington
Kate Harrington 