Original Poem：
When first I walked here I hobbled
along ties set too close together
for a boy to step easily on each.
I thought my stride one day
would reach every other and from then on
I would walk in time with the way
toward that Lobachevskian haze
up ahead where the two rails meet.
Here we put down our pennies, dark,
on shined steel; they trembled, fell still;
then the locomotive out of Attleboro
rattling its berserk wheel-rods into perfect circles,
brightened them into wafers, the way a fork
mashes into view the inner light of a carrot
in a stew. In this late March sunshine,
crossing the trees at the angle of a bow
when it effleurages out of the chanterelle
the C three octaves above middle C,
the vertical birthwood remembers
its ascent lines, shrunken by half, exactly
back down, each tree on its fallen summer.
Back then, these rocks often asked
blood offerings—but this one, once, asked bone,
the time Billy Wallace tripped and broke out
his front teeth. Fitted with gold replicas,
he asked, speaking more brightly, “What good
are golden teeth, given what we’ve got
to eat?” Nebuchadnezzar
spent seven years down on all fours
eating vetch and alfalfa, ruminating
the mouth-feel of “bloom” and “wither,”
until he was whole. If you
held a grass blade between both thumbs
and blew hard you could blurt a shriek
out of it—like that beseeching leaves oaks
didn’t drop last winter just now scratch
on a breeze. Maybe Billy, lured
by bones’ memory, comes back
sometimes, too, to the Seekonk Woods,
to stand in the past and just look at it.
Here he might kneel, studying this clump of grass,
as a god might inspect the strands of a human sneeze
that percusses through. Or he might stray
into the now untrafficked whistling-lanes
of the mourning doves, who used to call and call
into the future, and give a start, as though,
this very minute, by awful coincidence,
they reach it. And at last traipse off
down the tracks, with arrhythmic gait,
as wanderers must do once they realize:
the over-the-unknown route, too, ends up
where time wants. On this spot
I skinned the muskrat. The musk breezed away.
I buried the rat. Of the fur
I made a hat, which as soon as put on
began to rot off, causing my scalp to crawl.
In circles, of course, keeping to the skull.
One day could this scrap of damp skin
crawl all the way off, and the whole organism
follow? To do what? Effuse with musk,
or rot with rat? When, a quarter-
turn after the sun, the half-moon,
too, goes down and we find ourselves
in the night's night, then somewhere
hereabouts in the dark must be death.
Knowledge of it beforehand is surely among
existence’s most spectacular feats—and yet right here,
on this ordinary afternoon, in these woods,
with a name meaning “black goose” in Wampanoag,
or in modern Seekonkese, “slob blowing fat nose,”
this unlikely event happens—a creature
walking the tracks knows it will come.
Then too long to touch every tie, his stride
is now just too short to reach every other,
and so he is to be still the wanderer, the hirtle
of too much replaced by the common limp
of too little. But he almost got there.
Almost stepped in consonance with the liturgical,
sleeping gods’ snores you can hear humming up
from former times inside the ties. He almost
set foot in that border zone where what follows
blows back, shimmering everything, making
walking like sleepwalking, railroad tracks
a country lane on a spring morning,
on which a man, limping but blissful,
makes his way homeward, his lips, suppled
by kissing to bunch up like that, blowing
these short strands of hollowed-out air,
haunted by future, into a tune on the tracks.
I think I’m about to be shocked awake.
As I was in childhood, when I battered myself
back to my senses against a closed door,
or woke up hanging out of an upstairs window.
Somnambulism was my attempt to slip
under cover of nightmare across no father’s land
and embrace a phantasm. If only
I had found a way to enter his hard time
served at labor by day, by night in solitary,
and put my arms around him in reality,
I might not now be remaking him
in memory still; anti-alchemizing bass kettle’s
golden reverberations back down
to hair, flesh, blood, bone, the base metals.
I want to crawl face down in the fields
and graze on the wild strawberries, my clothes
stained pink, even for seven years
if I must, if they exist. I want to lie out
on my back under the thousand stars and think
my way up among them, through them,
and a little distance past them, and attain
a moment of absolute ignorance,
if I can, if human mentality lets us.
I have always intended to live forever;
but not until now, to live now. The moment
I have done one or the other, I here swear,
no one will have to drag me , I’ll come
but never will I agree to burn my words.
The poplar logs creosoted asleep under the tracks
have stopped snoring. Maybe they’ve
already waked up. The bow saws at G.
An oak leaf rattles on its tree. The rails
may never meet, O fellow Euclideans,
for you, for me. So what if we groan.
That’s our noise. Laughter is our stuttering
in a language we can’t speak yet. Behind,
the world made of wishes goes dark. Ahead,
if not now then never, shines what is.
Analysis and Interpretation of the Poem
This poem is a deeply reflective and richly layered meditation on memory, time, and the passage from childhood to adulthood. The speaker begins by recalling a youthful experience walking along railroad ties, struggling to step with a stride that would match the spacing of the ties. This physical challenge becomes a metaphor for the larger human challenge of moving through life in harmony with the flow of time and destiny, symbolized by the "Lobachevskian haze" where the rails seem to meet in an impossible, non-Euclidean space.
The poem is filled with vivid imagery and symbolic moments: pennies placed on the rails, the rattling locomotive, and the natural world around the tracks, including trees and animals. These images evoke a sense of nostalgia and the blending of the physical and metaphysical worlds. The references to historical and mythical figures like Nebuchadnezzar add a timeless, universal dimension to the poem’s themes of suffering, transformation, and eventual wholeness.
The speaker also reflects on personal loss and injury, such as the story of Billy Wallace who broke his teeth and replaced them with gold replicas, questioning the value of such replacements in the face of basic survival needs. This highlights a tension between external appearances and inner realities.
Toward the end, the poem becomes more philosophical, contemplating death and the inevitability of the end, yet also the desire to live fully in the present moment. The speaker’s longing to connect deeply with nature, to experience simple joys like wild strawberries or to lie under the stars, reveals a yearning for authentic existence and transcendence beyond memory and pain.
Background and Author Introduction
While the poem itself does not specify the author, its style suggests a contemporary poet with a strong interest in philosophy, memory, and the natural world. The poem’s references to mathematical concepts (Lobachevskian geometry), historical figures, and indigenous place names indicate a broad intellectual curiosity and a rootedness in place and history.
The poem likely emerges from a context where the author is revisiting childhood landscapes and memories, using them as a way to explore universal human experiences such as growth, loss, and the search for meaning. The reflective tone and intricate imagery suggest a mature voice, one that invites readers to slow down and contemplate the deeper currents beneath everyday life.
Lessons and Learning Points for Children and Students
This poem offers several valuable lessons and learning opportunities:
- Understanding Metaphor and Symbolism: Students can learn how physical experiences (like walking on railroad ties) can symbolize larger life themes such as growth, struggle, and destiny.
- Exploring Memory and Time: The poem encourages reflection on how past experiences shape who we are and how we relate to the present and future.
- Appreciating Nature and History: The vivid descriptions of trees, animals, and historical references can spark curiosity about the natural world and human history.
- Emotional Expression: The poem models how poetry can express complex emotions like nostalgia, loss, hope, and acceptance.
- Philosophical Inquiry: It introduces ideas about existence, death, and the desire for meaning, suitable for older students to explore in discussions or essays.
Practical Applications in Life and Study
- Creative Writing: Students can try writing their own poems or stories using metaphors drawn from their personal experiences.
- Mindfulness and Reflection: The poem’s meditative quality can inspire journaling or quiet reflection exercises to connect with one’s feelings and memories.
- Literature Analysis: Teachers can use this poem to teach literary devices such as imagery, allusion, and tone.
- Cross-disciplinary Learning: The poem’s references to geometry, history, and indigenous culture make it a useful text for integrated lessons combining literature, math, and social studies.
Reading Comprehension Questions
- What metaphor does the speaker use to describe their childhood experience walking on the railroad ties?
- How does the poem connect the physical world with memories and emotions?
- Who is Billy Wallace, and what does his story symbolize in the poem?
- What is the significance of the "Lobachevskian haze" mentioned in the poem?
- How does the poem portray the concept of death and living in the present?
- What role does nature play in the speaker’s reflections?
- How does the poem use sound and music imagery to enhance its themes?
- What does the speaker mean by "walking like sleepwalking" on the tracks?
- How does the poem express the tension between past and present?
- What lessons can readers learn about resilience and acceptance from this poem?
Answers to Reading Comprehension Questions
- The speaker uses the metaphor of hobbling along railroad ties set too close together for a boy to step easily, symbolizing the difficulty of growing up and finding one’s rhythm in life.
- The poem blends physical sensations and objects (rails, pennies, trees) with memories and emotions, showing how the past is intertwined with the present landscape.
- Billy Wallace is a boy who broke his front teeth and replaced them with gold replicas; his story symbolizes the contrast between appearance and reality, and the struggle to find value amid hardship.
- The "Lobachevskian haze" refers to a non-Euclidean geometric concept where parallel lines meet, symbolizing an elusive destination or understanding beyond ordinary perception.
- Death is portrayed as an inevitable, mysterious presence near the end of the poem, while the speaker emphasizes the importance of living fully and consciously in the present moment.
- Nature serves as a witness to time’s passage and a source of sensory and spiritual connection for the speaker, grounding abstract ideas in tangible experience.
- Sound and music imagery, such as the "C three octaves above middle C" and the locomotive’s rhythm, create a sense of harmony and dissonance that reflect the poem’s themes of time and memory.
- "Walking like sleepwalking" suggests moving through life in a trance-like state, caught between awareness and unconsciousness, past and future.
- The poem expresses tension between past and present through the speaker’s longing to reconnect with childhood and the recognition that time moves forward inevitably.
- Readers learn about resilience through the speaker’s perseverance despite injury and loss, and about acceptance in embracing life’s uncertainties and the limits of control.
This poem is a rich resource for students to explore complex ideas through poetic language, encouraging both intellectual and emotional growth.
