The Poet's Perspective

Keep Walkin' Old Man

Photos and Poetry

Welcome to The Poet’s Perspective. I’d like to share some recent photos and poetry.  The Cape Cod Autumn is in full-swing. Recently I have visited the Fort Hill Area, where I enjoyed a stormy Saturday’s walk, marveling at the colors in the pasture just above Nauset Marsh.

     In the Red Maple Swamp a hawk perched on the highest branch and posed there for over 15 minutes, angling his or her wings this way and that, perhaps to dry them, exercise them or to merely show off. Regardless, the hawk’s eminence was without argument. The bird saw farther and wider than any creature around, and seemed to enjoy that perch.

    Nickerson State Park is great this time of year. I have been riding all the way out to area 7, where the beauty is now more open to appreciation.

    In the Hacker Wetlands of Harwich, the foliage is beginning to turn, and the area’s resident Great Blue Heron seeks the quiet corners.

    It’s important to for us all to find that little place where peace dwells.

Keep Walkin’

Keep walkin’ old man; circle ‘round the lane.

Tell me of the days before the motorcar came.

I know why you walk, for to stop would be unwise.

These elder days on sunny lanes therefore come as no surprise.

 You walk all sage and silent so.

  And though my stride is thrice as wide-

The wisdom I sense is dense and ergo.

I wonder at what brilliance time will deny.

So keep walkin’ old man, worry not for me.

I have my own glories and losses to foresee.

Atop shoulders like yours I’ll seek a new view.

Prodded forth by modern times, so too goeth you-

Autumn Pasture

Rose hips. Luscious red, rosa rugosa-

Yellow ragweed, the genus once dubbed “ambrosia”

Wild purple aster, of rarest beauty in a dewy mist-

Deep earthy tones of ferns gone past, a shade that shan’t be missed-

Deep scarlet shows itself, rhus radicans,

Mimicked by the saplings of hopeful sassafras-

Yellow bittersweet berries hang sullen and slack.

Grapevines all scatter, ropelike and black.

Virginia Creeper snakes through it all.

The elements join in a festival of fall.

Amongst the thorns the birds can hide.

Or wing fancifully thru pastures far and wide.

To bring songs just as timeless as the marsh from which we came.

We pray that ages hence, some bits remain the same.

Forever 30

Why must you be forever 30?

Your first breath drawn in ’53-

I wish you the grace of greater age.

To see the world beyond ’83-

Oh so much has changed, do you know it to be true?

At times I spy a tumultuous sky and look for signs of you.

As once did a boy, looking skyward in despair-

Propelled then celestially in hopes you rested there.

Calmly watching o’er the flock.

Photos and Text Copyright 2009 Jonathan Dean Mayo

Index of Photos From Top

                     Namskaket Creek, Orleans

                      Hawk poses at Red Maple Swamp-Fort Hill.

                       Hacker Wetlands and Harwich Sky

                       Pasture above Nauset Marsh

                    White Pine Grove,  Nook Rd. Trail, Nickerson State Park, Brewster