Have you ever noticed when you are driving in a town or city and listening to music in the car, people walking by seem to be walking to the beat? Sometimes the music is fast paced and you can’t help but notice the hips sway, the arms doing their one-two,one-two movement. Perhaps you have changed channel a few times to see who moves best or the most to the rhythm. Maybe you are with a friend and he or she points some people out…heck, even dogs are walking to the beat!
Then you may be strolling through a park with your ear-buds, listening to your tunes and you cannot help but move to the movement in time with the music floating in your ears. If it is upbeat, and you are walking on a city sidewalk, that could actually be a risk to the safety to you and others. Better tone the music down to something more mellow and mosey along ready to stop, walk around or step off the sidewalk at times. Yes, yes, you have met those friends who walk three and four in a row refusing to break their group of four.
Even if you do not have music to carry you when you go for a walk, you can certainly hear something that will have a beat that can carry you at a certain tempo. The beeping at the red light for visually impaired to cross has a nice honk to it and even when it stops, it still echoes for a few blocks as you walk to that beat. The rattle of a three wheeler down the street, the repetitive clang of a loose hub cap or the click click of those nice pumps across the street. I prefer the steady thump of my favourite boots when I’m in a good mood.
The best of all of course, is walking either just after dawn or before dusk, the conference of fowls who play, chatter, talk about their day, mother robin singing her bedtime stories to her nestling. It is a cacophony of chirps of various intonations and if you close your eyes you can imagine you are in the woods somewhere alone just you and nature. Your heart beats quicker at first until the tones simmer down and you watch the sun set…
silence dips
pools of magenta
hum of my breath
© Tournesol ’15
FOLI (there is no movement without rhythm)
original version by Thomas Roebers and Floris Leeuwenberg
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
I had never seen the world the way you so brilliantly describe, but then, I walk and listen to audio books. I don’t try to move to the cadence of those words or I’d be running! I’m going to switch to music tomorrow for part of my walk and see if people are walking in time to the beat. The poem you wrote perfectly captures nature moving to a beat.
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I’m so pleased you enjoyed this, Melinda! In the past year I have been chanting mantras lately when I walk but in a car it is so funny to see…you could sit at a bus stop and people watch with your music and enjoy this as well:)
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I’d like to try that when life quiets down and I’m not running from place to place! Soon that’ll come when the weather forces everyone to take a breather.
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My car died over a year ago, so I have lots of time to walk, wait way too long at buses, so I use that time to let my imagination wander and take lots of photos:) Hope life slows down for you soon.
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Thank you 🙂 I do get my walk in everyday no matter what and when I have time, I take photos along the way as you do. Walking is so good for you; I wish I could walk everywhere but I live too far from work and family for that. Affordable housing and public transit don’t go together, not in my corner of NY!
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Oh that is too bad:( I live just by the bridge to Montreal so public transit is good in the city but not so great in my neighborhood, hence the walking.
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that sounds like a great place to live. I can and do walk to church and the grocery store but that’s all I do on foot. For all other destinations, a 30-50 minute drive is necessary.
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Such a long commute and that is where you listen as well to audio books, right? In heavy traffic I would listen to classical or chant my mantra because I tend to get road rage like most Quebecois here. I found driving quite similar in Manhattan actually.Although much much bigger and more populated, it is an island and they all fight to squeeze (merge) onto bridges as we do. I may retire in Montreal …looking for a coop housing.
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If there’s one thing I enjoy it is movement in a haibun! Especially with destination – My my did I hear the sound of your favourite boots as you walk! And I do think boots should be a part of a woman’s wardrobe…!
Your haibun flowed so föuently – it seemed like it had just tumbled out in one write, causing no frustration to get it right or anything, and then smoothly settled to your calm, warm haiku.
I haven’t listened to he drums yet – I will.
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thanks you, Hamish, well, living here boots are worn almost all year and they are so much more comfortable. It is the video that inspired the haibun actually.
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Awesome video and I do understand you so well that this video inspired you to create the haibun.
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Thank you, Kristjaan, I truly enjoyed the video you shared with throat songs…so inspiring!
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