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/.

While I was visiting my family in South Carolina last month, my cousin M asked me if I knew anything about adult trikes. She was thinking about getting one for noodling around her neighborhood; she liked the idea of the extra stability of the third wheel, and the setup seemed well-suited for fun and safety.

I’d never tried one myself, but I’ve certainly seem them around, mainly in beach resort area paths. In fact, I once saw a celebrity riding a three-wheeler in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard; if you must know, it was Henry Louis “Skip: Gates, Harvard scholar and host of PBS’ Finding Your Roots, definitely counts as a celebrity in my book.

I told M I’d do a little research and get back to her. Looking online, I found that, as in two-wheelers, you can get them with manual power or electric-assist, and they come in a wide range of prices. Really what I needed to do was try one out on the road and experience it myself.

My friend Pata, herself an experienced cyclist and certified cycling instructor, came with me to a local bike shop to try out the one model of e-trike available there. We both rode it in a bank parking lot, checking out the feel of the bike, handling, cornering, shifting, etc. First, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Here’s me.

Now, to Pata:

Why were we so unhappy? Because the handling of the bike was extraordinarily poor. The cornering made us both feel like one of the back wheels would leave the pavement at any moment. The geometry and setup were grossly uncomfortable. Yes, the shifting worked and the pedal-assist seemed fine, but none of this would matter if you were lying on the pavement with a heavy trike on top of you.

And for this experience, one would have to pay about $2700 USD. No, thank you.

Here are a couple of shots of the trike in the shop.

What are the takeaways from this outing? One, that there is no substitute for trying a bike or trike yourself in order to get a feel for fit, handling, etc. Two, that if I want to recommend a trike (pedal-assist or not) to my dear cousin M, I’ve got a lot more research to do.

I’ll start here: readers, do any of you own or know much about adult trikes? Any recommendations to make? Let me know!