Every time I’m about ready to unsubscribe from The Writer’s Almanac (so, every time they feature a famous white guy), there’s a poem that stops me. This isn’t a particularly deep one but it’s fun to see the sonnet form be so casual and it does contain some excellent advice.
Go For a Brisk Walk
by Gene Guntzel
Go for a brisk walk every day
Either around dawn or sunset
And you may run into Chopin or Monet,
Charlotte Bronte or a mysterious brunette
Who turns out to be Maria Callas.
Bessie Smith, Jack Benny, you never knew,
The Duke of Earl slipping away from the palace,
Kafka and his fiancée strolling in the snow.
Melville whose book you meant to read,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Princess Diana, Van Gogh,
Out walking, despite all they’ve been through.
“To comprehend a nectar requires sorest need,”
Said Emily Dickinson. (She’s here, too.)
Life is hard. Oh Lord, the miseries we bear
And yet it’s good to get out in the open air.