Welcome to Poetry Friday. If you visit this blog regularly you might have caught on to how much I love my morning walks, I live in a beautiful part of Australia, with options to walk in bushy and, parks, on the beach, around an inlet and more.
This week I have been driving my son to exams most morning, so instead of walking close to home, I have stopped on the way home and walked in some different locations. One of these was a place called Big Swamp, about ten minutes away. It’s a big wetland, which is actually rehabilitated land on what was once the town rubbish dump. Now it is teeming with wildlife, and the number of ducks, swans, swamp hens and other birds is just fabulous.
There is a path that goes right around the outside of the swamp, but my favourite path branches off that and heads through paperbark trees, and scrub and rushes, and leads to a boardwalk and an observation hut for bird watchers. I was delighted to have this path to myself, and really felt like I was on an adventure.
My meandering reminded me of a poem by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, who wrote of a path that leads nowhere. Her countryside was quite different from mine, but the sentiment is one I can really relate to.
The Path That Leads Nowhere
There’s a path that leads to Nowhere 
In a meadow that I know,
Where an inland island rises
And the stream is still and slow;
There it wanders under willows,
And beneath the silver green
Of the birches’ silent shadows
Where the early violets lean.
Other pathways lead to Somewhere,
But the one I love so well
Has no end and no beginning—
Just the beauty of the dell…
You can read the rest of the poem here, and for more poetry goodness, check out the Poetry Friday roundup which is being hosted today by Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe.
PS – Ducklings! I counted 19. Have a great week.
Wow, Sally. Fancy my being schooled on the poetry of Teddy R’s sister by a foreigner! I really love Corinne’s poem–it has that diction of an earlier era but also a freshness and, well, wanderingness appropriate to its topic. The photo of the the bridge through the paperbarks is so intriguing….
Thanks Heidi. I had come across the poem before, but it was only when I looked it up for my post that I realised the Roosevelt connection.
Oh, to be out in the world and have the path all to myself for the morning! Lucky you!
Thanks Mary. Yes, I feel pretty lucky!
I love my walks too but they are not nearly so varied and gorgeous as yours. I love that picture of the bridge surrounded by branches and the poem is lovely. My kids think walks and hikes are silly because they go nowhere; they haven’t realized yet that it’s the walk itself that’s the destination.
Thanks Liz. My kids are a bit the same. Still, I don’t mind walking on my own, so maybe it’s a blessing that they’d rather stay home.
That poem has the perfect lilt for a refreshing, meandering stroll. Your morning walks sound revitalising, Sally.
They are Kat. I’m blessed to live in such a lovely part of the world.
I hope you keep walking and sharing, Sally. What a lovely poem, and by Teddy Roosevelt’s sister! I enjoy every part of this poem, but sometimes I am in love with the rhyming too, and what the poet does to make it work. Love “Where the early violets lean.” Thank you!
Thanks Linda. I loved that line, too. Simple, yet lovely.
What joyous adventures–yours in current real-time, Ms. Roosevelt’s shared from the past. Both adventures resonate in a special way today since my PF post caused me to reminisce about Frost’s “Road Taken”–path less traveled. Thanks for taking us down that path. God bless you!
Thanks for visiting and what a coincidence that you, too, were thinking about a path poem. It crossed my mind to also mention Frost’s poem, but decided to stick to just one.
Enjoyed your photos and the poem, Sally. I saved the poem to re-read later, and noticed that the poet was Teddy Roosevelt’s sister! How interesting.
Thanks Tabatha. Yes, I was interested by that connection too.