Vox Populi
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Wendy Mnookin: The Public Garden
The sun is shining and I’m content
to be myself, walking across the Common
as families queue up by the Swan Boats,
real swans parting the water
in elegant wakes. This is
la vie en rose—
on a lawn vivid with spring
people walk their dogs, peeling off
in clusters of introduction and gossip;
below a sign that shouts Don’t
Feed the Ducks, families throw
wadded-up bread into the pond;
kids on the carousel want
More! More! Frisbee players,
tourists in Red Sox caps, babies
with their dimpled elbows,
the guy on stilts, the pretzel vendor,
the woman holding out a cup for change
as she recites our forecast,
I’m taking it in, all of it, sun
and melting cones, skinned knees
and soothing words
and single shining tears,
whatever love has rained on us all.
“The Public Garden” by Wendy Mnookin from Dinner with Emerson. © Tiger Bark Press, 2016. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)
Wendy Mnookin heads up the Poetry Roundtable at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. She and her husband live in Newton, Massachusetts.
Vox Populi 
“I’m taking it in, all of it” was how I felt reading this lovely poem❤️🌞
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Thanks Lisa!
Wendy
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Oh what memories your poem brings back! Thank you for sharing your stroll through the Public Gardens complete with swans and ice cream cones. The perfect ending for a hot summer day.
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Thank you Sandy!
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Oh, what memories this brings back! Thank you for sharing your wonderful stroll through the Public Gardens complete with swans and ice cream cones. A perfect ending for a summer day.
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I love Wendy’s poem, reminded me of Whitman describing all the different activity. Also caused me to miss Boston where I lived for 14 years. ~ Deborah DeNicola
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Thanks, Deborah. I love the catalogue about the Common, and the last line lifts the poem onto a new level.
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Thanks Deb!
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Thank you, Wendy.
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Glad you enjoyed the poem!
—Wendy
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That poem is balm for the soul.
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Thanks Tracy—
Wendy
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Brava!
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Thanks Gabrielle!
Wendy
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Wonderfully evocative poem. I felt as if I were there.
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Thanks Dale. We should go to the Public Garden this fall—
Wendy
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All these delights in a delighful poem!
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Thanks Laure-Anne!
Wendy
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Sometimes you just need a poem and this one did what was needed. Here, now, everyday happiness that has become the longed for. Last night was rattlesnake and firemen and death of a creature who dared to invade what was once its turf. Today I needed dimpled elbows and melting cones. Thank you.
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Barbara,
Glad you got what you needed from the poem!
—Wendy
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Thank you, Wendy, for taking me along for that lovely walk.
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Rose Mary,
You were good company on the walk…
Wendy
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