On Foot

“On Foot” is an interdisciplinary examination of the importance of walking and running to the creative life. It is primarily a personal essay braided together with free verse poetry and a small proportion of inquiry into a few famous thinkers and writers who walked regularly. The essay traces a serious foot injury and the effects of that trauma, coupled with the threat of loss of sight, on a writer with a long history of walking and running as part of their creative process. The five poems unspool the sights and sounds of the natural rural world where they walk daily, use a morning run to query the idea of mothering, chronicle during daily walks some of the species at risk of extinction by humanity, consider the importance of words and writing on a global scale, and reflect on changes brought about by time and trauma to an aging runner’s body