The Importance of Walking in Poetry: Part 3

Walking in nature is an ecological activity. It is so first within the ecology of our sacred bodies; second, in the ecology of our bodies moving around in natural environments; and third in the ecology of our communities. When we take the time to walk in nature, we become better humans, contributing more patiently, compassionately, and thoughtfully to the ecology of humanity. If we’re not walking around and getting at least a few thousand steps in, then our body is breaking down, for simple lack of movement. We need to move, walk, get the blood and lymph circulating to supply the ecosystem of our body with all its nutrients, and clear out waste and dead cells. This is true on numerous levels…physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. If our body is breaking down, then so is our scene, mind, soul, spirit, human and non-human relationships. Out with the old, and in with the new.

Idyllic autumn light bathing the valley between meadows and forests

What does walking have to do with poetry?

The four main ways in which walking helps to read and write poetry are:

Observation

Inspiration

Rumination

Reading

We set the pace in part one of The Importance of Walking in Poetry series, talking about observation . Then we discussed inspiration.

The beauty of nature is its non-human aspect. Nietzsche suggested that people who love nature do so because nature never judges us.

Today we’re going to focus on ‘rumination,’ and we mean this in a Nietzschean sense. We are spiritual cows standing placidly upon the plains of this fertile earth, with thought walking as giants above us, casting long shadow into our mind. We take a bite of mind and chew. Slow, and thoughtful, we bask in this skewed light of existence, catching glimpses of in-sight.

Nietzsche introduced his idea of rumination in the preface to Genealogy of Morals (1887).

Walking in nature allows us to think in a soft and slow manner. Remember to lift your chin and look approximately 20 degrees above the horizon. Aim for the tops of trees half a football field ahead of you. This allows gathered mental insights to flow gently down through shoulders, belly, thighs, calves, and toes. Allow your mind to dictate its terms, and parts of your body to respond with their own rebellion. Form an integration of mind and body through the wilful act of walking. 90 minutes is ideal, usually somewhere around 10,000 steps.

Pyrenean cows along Tristaina river in the pyrenees of Androrra

To ruminate is to think, and to think is to know we exist. The ecological act of walking in nature situates our body within an environment that neither we nor any of our species created. We are forced to give ourselves over to the fact that we are not our own maker. There is something greater, older, wiser, longer-lasting, and more wilful than ourselves. This realisation is really good for writing and reading poetry. Kind of a Poetry 101 class where you get a syllabus listing Trees as Unit 1, Unit 2 is Water, 3 is Sky, 4 is Earth, 5 is Your Body on Nature, and 6 is Language, which ties it all together.

Bamboo Park (Wangjianglou Park) in Chengdu, China. Your author spent over a decade ruminating in this park, usually with a flask of tea and pad of paper, maybe a book or two.

I recommend a good browse, both before and after your walk today, through the Igneus Bookshop. There you’ll find over three decades of collectibles by masters of poetry and existence by authors such as Peter Laska and Richard Martin, writers who have done more than their fair share of rumination, digesting the very difficult to digest grasses of philosophy and politics, alchemizing realisations in stanzas and lines of poetry.

Igneus In-House Trio LIVE Performance of RECORD

Igneus In-house Trio

Igneus Press In-House Trio LIVE Performance of the full text of George Keenen’s RECORD.

RECORD is a poem originally published in the 1970’s using traditional rubber-stamp methods, handed out to friends and co-conspirators in the underground San Francisco literary scene as part of an infiltration of spiritual communities and academic institutions.

Igneus Press has published RECORD as an off-set publication merging the traditional minimalist aesthetic of Igneus publications with George Keenen’s run-away-into-the-silence-of-chaos mid-20th century New York look and feel.

RECORD, by George Keenen, is available in a limited edition run of only 200 books. Order yours now, in the Igneus Press online bookshop. Buy your copy here.⠀