18 Comments
User's avatar
Chris Bodor's avatar

This is a mantra for today; this new day. I will embrace and face this day and recognise that it is mine for the taking. I love this poem and message.

Expand full comment
monsters and men's avatar

Free one is he who lives by this rules, free, wild, untamed. Only when one seeks companionship he will have to trade shards of this freedom in exchange for whatever his peer has to offer… 😏 and that is when the well constructed castles of glass might begin to crumble... Anyhow, as seeking companionship is not fashionable this days anymore, this could be an alluring aim for this wretched life. Thank you for posting the poem, it’s beautiful!

Expand full comment
Dr. Deborah Hall's avatar

yes

thank you for this lovely call to the wild

I live this way

as I was blessed to be raised on Thoreau

there is a sublime book:

In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World

in which quotations of Thoreau

are illustrated with photographs

of the beauties of nature

that he was describing

Reading it strengthens our soul

to live this way

Expand full comment
Susanna's avatar

I grew up w that book and it’s gorgeous photos!

Expand full comment
Dr. Deborah Hall's avatar

wow

how wonderful!!!

Expand full comment
Jim's avatar

WH Davies had a traumatic, fantastic life. He wrote a book, 'Autobiography of a Supertramp' (from where Alexander Supertramp of Into the Wild took his pseudonym) which is well worth reading. It details his life and adventures as a tramp in England and riding the rails in the US until he tragically gets his legs severed whilst falling from a train he was riding. His recovery and attempts to get published are just as tragic and poetic as his work. This poem is a beaut and sums up his approach to life. Thanks for posting.

Expand full comment
Julie Dee's avatar

Appreciate the recommendation

Expand full comment
JASON RICHARDS.'s avatar

Wow that was seriously cool...I need to get back into writing poems..

Expand full comment
Lisa B. Martin    zihuawriter's avatar

Freedom reigns. We must know this.

Expand full comment
Dian Parker's avatar

A blessing to live this way that so many feel they can’t. If everyone lived this way methinks there would be no more war. As dear Walt wrote: Yes, a thousand times yes.

Thank you for this.

Expand full comment
Rhea's avatar

This poem embodies the attitude Gen Z has towards work in the modern day. Thank you for sharing

Expand full comment
James Whitcomb's avatar

I don’t think they care about the environment. They are aware of how abusive and pointless work is. They know it’s a farce. That’s why they don’t play along. Good on them!

Expand full comment
Rhea's avatar

Agreed!

Expand full comment
Dan Ackerfeld's avatar

"nutting in the wood" has different connotations nowadays, but otherwise, great poem! Very relatable sentiments.

Expand full comment
Julie Dee's avatar

It’s a stone throw away from ‘foraging in the bush’ 😂😂😂

Expand full comment
man of aran's avatar

He'd rather die a beggar or a thief. I appreciate his honest recognition of the conditions that might be needed for the kind of freedom he values. Somebody's gotta pay, don't they? Is wage slavery the only other option?

Expand full comment
Julie Dee's avatar

If there is one obvious agenda we must make an effort to fight, it is the one that seeks to distance us from the simple pleasures and pursuits we can find in the natural world.

Engaging with them is the true work of mankind and the only work worth doing in my opinion.

Expand full comment
Nate's avatar

beautiful, the poet's pursuit of her individual truth, unfortunately not as easy for those of us living 'within' society

Expand full comment