Walkabout

It seems as if I have walked forever
through this life, on this path
from birth to death.

Sometimes I have walked together
with friends and family,
sometimes alone.

Often the path meandered,
for a while it took me off course,
past woodland, pasture and meadow,
past sheep, cow and horse.

Now often on my walkabout
I sit down to ponder beneath a tree
where the ghost of history
lies down beside me.

Kim M. Russell, 7th May 2024

Image by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

It’s Tuesday, over at the dVerse Poets Pub it’s Poetics with Lisa, and we are on pilgrimage, wandering, and on walkabout.

Lisa tells us that she was inspired by a prompt from 2018 about Holy Places, which she thinks says everything about pilgrimage. But today’s prompt isn’t just about pilgrimage. Lisa looked at three words that feel like synonyms: pilgrimage, wandering, and walkabout, for which she has given us definitions. She has also shared poems by Natasha Trethewey, William Butler Yeats and Caren Krutsinger.

Lisa has given us four options to choose from. I have chosen the second option and taken the following line from ‘Pilgrimage’ by Natasha Trethewey:

“the ghost of history lies down beside me”.

43 thoughts on “Walkabout”

  1. What a lovely walkabout, Kim! The opening lines are lovely and I especially liked the closing lines
    “I sit down to ponder beneath a tree
    where the ghost of history
    lies down beside me.”…so evocative.

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  2. Love Love Love the image and within the poem, that last stanza.
    Yes, life is truly a walkabout….some have a more enjoyable path than others…for some scenery changes in a good way…for others not. Ah….you’ve got me thinking now! 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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  13. Just beautiful, to sit with the ghost of history beside you. I feel that often when I walk through the bush. I sometimes wonder if I long for an earlier time away from all this modern noise.

    Liked by 1 person

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