Dear readers– for your quiet reading pleasure, I’m delighted to share with you this poem by poet Sara Letourneau. I came across her work in the newsletter for Grubstreet Boston, a center for creative writing that offers courses and support for writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and other forms. I’ve taken several online writing courses at Grubstreet, and am starting an in-person storytelling course this coming Tuesday.
I love this poem because it expresses the joy in the solidity and security of the bike, and the excitement and thrill of exploring the unknown. Our own Fieldpoppy writes brilliantly about this duality in her bike travel logs. Some of them are in effect prose poems. Check out her reflections on her solo cycling trip across Lithuania here.
Back to Sara: her poem, “Meditation for a Bicyclist” was originally published in Amethyst Review, and you can access it here in their publication.
Meditation for a Bicyclist
May your trail be long, open, and clear,
no matter if it’s made of earth or asphalt.
.
May your weather be cool and dry,
with the wind at your back, beckoning you forward.
.
May the air you breathe smell ripe with life—
early fall sky and sunlight, sparkling joy and resolve.
.
And should the pavement be cracked or breached by tree roots,
may you coast over them as if they are no hindrance.
.
And should your tires slip
and cause you to fall,
.
may you remember that you can always stand up,
get back on your bike, and continue onward.
.
May you always carry a knowing of the road forward
and your route back, and yet
.
may you always dare to veer off-path
into the forest undergrowth and make your own way.
.
May your legs muscles burn and hum, gifting you
the momentum to push onward, mile after mile.
.
May there be a rushing of your heart, a melding
of hands and handlebars, feet and pedals,
.
until you and your machine are one,
racing ahead with spirit as teammate and freedom as destination.
.
May you always delight
in the journey
.
Readers, do you have favorite poems about your favorite movement? We’d love to read them. Send us a link in the comments.
Sara Letourneau is a poet as well as the book coach, editor, and writing workshop instructor at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. Her poetry has received first place in the Blue Institute’s Words on Water contest and has appeared in Full Mood Mag, Living Crue, Arlington Literary Journal, Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment and Hard Work of Hope, Muddy River Poetry Review, Soul-Lit, Amethyst Review, and Constellations, among others. Her manuscript for her first full-length poetry collection is on submission. You can learn more about working with Sara and read more of her work at https://heartofthestoryeditorial.com/.
The poem reminds me of a minister’s blessing. We had (pre-COVID) an annual spring ride which included a church basement breakfast and a “Blessing of the Bikes” by the minister. It is a beautiful old rural hilltop church. Waffles with berries and the new season’s maple syrup were featured. I expected something cursory for the blessing but it was detailed and poetic, asking for, not only our safety, but tailwinds, beauty, no flat tires…
* Delightful. The words used in the poem inspire us to embrace our own journeys and forge our own paths. This is indeed a motivating poem to inspire people to use meditation to improve the quality of their life.