2.5 miles
basement, treadmill
100% huge puddles hiding invisible slick spots outside
Happy to have the treadmill again today but disappointed in the weather. As Scott pointed out when I complained, it could be worse. Farther west today in the Plains and Denver winter storm Ulmer–yes, that’s what they’ve named it–is hitting. A nasty blizzard. Even so, the conditions here suck. We have flood warnings. Rain + melting snow + clogged sewer drains = yuck. So dreary to look out of my upstairs window and see a grayish brownish sludgy soup on the street. Managed to walk the dog for one block and almost fell at least 3 times. Deep puddles hiding sneaky slick spots. Didn’t think about much on the treadmill. Just stared at the letters on a box on a ledge in front of me and listened to my running playlist. Well, I did think about how much faster I thought I was running than the treadmill or my watch say. Also wondered how the gorge was doing today.
My poem for today comes from Didi Jackson. I heard it on Tracy K. Smith’s wonderful podcast, The Slowdown. It’s called Listen, which is something I’ve been working on doing ever since I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease in 2016. It’s even more important now since I found out from my eye doctor on Monday that my central vision has gotten worse. In my left eye, my central vision is 98% gone. The 2% remaining is in the very center and is almost gone too. I saw it on a scan of my retina–a pale yellow dot in a sea of darkish grayish black. My right eye is a little better. Only 70% totally gone. My doctor’s prediction: My central vision will be totally destroyed within the next 5 years. His suggestion: “Get your hearing checked. You’re going to need it.” So, I will listen. I read a tip on a low vision site for how not to spill when you’re filling up a cup: Listen. You can hear when the cup is full. I’ll have to practice that.
Listen
by Didi Jackson
Like a hundred gray ears
the river stones are layered
in a pile near the shed where mourning
doves slow their peck and bobble to listen
to a chorus of listening.
Small buds on the lilac perk up.
A cardinal’s torpedoed call comes
in slow waves of four,
round after round. It’s a love call;
a call to make him known to himself.
The stones listen harder,
decipher the song; attempt
to offer back its echo.
But fail.
This is not a poem of coming Spring.
This is a poem well aware
that gray flesh is dead flesh.
All of the ripe listening
comes at a cost. The first
sky is in all skies.
The first song
is in all songs.