#MIDDLEBURY
Thoughts While Walking
Maxwell Bodenheim
A steel hush freezes the trees.
It is my mind stretched to stiff lace,
And draped on high wide thoughts.
My soul is a large sallow park
And people walk on it, as they do on the park before me.
They numb my levelness with dumb feet,
Yet I cannot even hate them.
About this poem
“Thoughts While Walking” was published in Vol. 3, No. 4 of Others in December 1916.
About Maxwell Bodenheim
Maxwell Bodenheim was born in 1892 in Hermanville, Miss. He published numerous books of poetry, including “Introducing Irony” (Boni and Liveright, 1922) and “Returning to Emotion” (Boni and Liveright, 1927). He died on Feb. 6, 1954.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
