Vox Populi
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Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Why I Stay Up Late Walking
At night I walk. Because
it is easier then to not
be my story. Easier to be
more flesh and less brain.
Easier to be the one
who is gathered into
the field of darkness
by night’s great hands
and planted there.
Because sometimes
rain and sometimes wind
and sometimes stars
and always the world
so much larger than I,
so much vaster
than a small room
with a narrow doorway
and a tale relentlessly sad.
I walk not so much from,
but not so much to—
more that I walk through—
my ribs and lungs
becoming ladder rungs
that form a path
between earth and sky,
and I am more breath
than blame, more step than
shame, more now than why.
~~~~
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet, teacher, speaker and writing facilitator who co-hosts the Emerging Form podcast on creative process. Her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, is on the Ritual app. Her poems have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, and Carnegie Hall stage. Her most recent poetry collections are All the Honey and The Unfolding.
Copyright 2024. From The Unfolding (Wildhouse, 2024).
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I love this poem. I also walk at night when the street lights are soft and there is no cars, no people, not much distraction. Not much to see or hear except hear my heart, my steps, the wind and maybe the sound of a night bird. I love to walk at night because I feel my own presence. My consciousness becomes sharp, “between earth and sky and I am more breath than blame, more step than shame, more Now than why”
Thank you so much Rosemerry for being my voice and so many souls voices!! 💖
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Hi Michael,
I just took the time to read Rosemary’s walking poem aloud and found the line breaks so fitting, so intelligent. I too love to walk through the night, but that is far from the only reason I love this poem. Thank you.
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Thanks, Luray. I love Rosemerry’s poems as well.
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Lovely night poem 🖤
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As always with Rosemerry’s poetry, we are immersed in her amazing imagery, imagery that allows a transcendent meaning to emerge. I also walk at night, but after reading her poem, I’ll walk with more awareness now.
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Thanks, Charlie. Well-said.
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Yes me too – last night on my sleepless walk I was more aware of the stars and the clouds moving across the sky and less anxious about being out alone at night. Thank you
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Ah, to walk through is the quiet discipline I am exercising as often as I can now — it has taught me to walk through what was a most difficult, hurting aloneness to a rich, varied, & glad solitude. Rosemerry’s poem, for me, describes this so well:
I am more breath
than blame, more step than
shame, more now than why.
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Yes
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I travel the same path as you, Laure-Anne, walking through to a “rich, varied, and glad solitude” (most of the time). Rosemerry’s poem describes this process poignantly…For her an unfolding.
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I miss my audacity. I love hers.
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I love this one. I need to go for a night walk and look up and inhale!
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Yes, taking the darkness within us joyfully.
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A wonderful poem! Thank you.
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