Tag: poetry

Walking this evening: A poem

Carl Setzer

An evening stroll

As I’m often want

To do. 

These sidewalks, older than me

My memories stretch back

Decades.  

Once, my dream,  

Distant travel. 

That has waned

My love for this area 

Grown to significant

Proportions. 

This path I’ve trudged

At least a thousand times

Changed for biredom 

Now is home 

The Seattle Connection Of Poet Gary Snyder

Carl Setzer

Perhaps you’re familiar with Gary Snyder. Most famous for his affiliation with Beat poets like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, he work is really it’s own beast. One of my favorite writers, I read his work quite regularly. He’s quite influential on me.

I find the way he combines such things as zen, Chinese literature and nature poetry with geomorphology and geology simply fascinating. And his eye keeps looking at the west coast, with him spending a great deal of time in the Pacific Northwest.

His seminal work, Mountains and Rivers Without End covers a great deal of ground topic-wise. There are several poems with Pacific Northwest themes, but one strikes me most: “Night Highway 99“. (The link will take you to the Google Books edition of book.)

I remember when I first really read the title. “Really” meaning “attentive, aware, awake (in a zen-sort-of-way). The connection was instant. Growing up in Lynnwood just a few blocks from Highway 99, it’s very easy to envision the places he writes about. Also, with my journeys around the region, most of the towns he mentions I know. At least driving by, and many of them have memories of my footsteps upon the ground.

Definitely give Mr. Snyder a read. The rewards; magnificent!

Seattle's Aurora Bridge at night
Seattle’s Aurora Bridge at night

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A new post on Medium: Upon The Horizon

Carl Setzer
Rumi and Change

I started writing this while on an evening walk in my Lynnwood neighborhood. Currently, I live where I grew up. Stepping out my backdoor, I can see my parent’s house. My son goes to the same school I went to. This depth of familiarity gave me pause. I consider community, faith and a few other things close to me. I wrote this before Friday’s Parisian horror, though. Oddly, though, it’s still timely, especially considering how laden the world became with invective and rage. It’s challenging to maintain hope for humanity at these moments.

It’s best to focus on the peacemakers, diving deeper into love. Slowly, slowly we transform ourselves and, thus, the world around us. Therein lies my hope.