I used to run--three or four miles, every other day. I ran to lose weight, to still my thoughts, to stay in control of my twenty-year-old life. What I didn't know is that running right before going to bed can cause insomnia and so I just kept getting more more strung out in a horrible cycle.
No more running. I stopped after about six months of living in Japan and thought that I had found peace here and that this country had given me the gift of peace. Well, it did, but not after only six months...
This one is called:
Running for the Distance
I run through pools of subdivided streetlight
Only Orion and my shadow go with me
Sharp air cuts my lungs and once expelled,
lingers where I've been
Ice shines in the gutters, gleaming back at
yellow welcoming front porch bulbs
Trees huddle beside lighted windows
In the bitter cold their brances chatter--
trying to pass on gossip: the snatches of well-fed
suburban conversation
Sailing from high mountains, far beyond this road,
the wind whispers to me of distances in the darkness
As if to bridge them, I run on
deeper and deeper into the night
Don't need to run anymore. I like to hike and mountain bike and swim in the green pools of Nara and Wakayama. Don't exercise to lose weight, just to keep my balance. But I still count Orion as a friend.
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