After Long Busyness

In the mid-1990s, at my first corporate job, I pinned a copy of the poem “After Long Busyness” to my cubicle wall. One morning, an older coworker strolled by and read it aloud. “What does that mean?!” she exclaimed, and walked off.

I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk.
Moon gone, plowing underfoot, no stars; not a trace of light!
Suppose a horse were galloping toward me in this open field?
Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.

In only four lines, Bly captures the experience -- after work, after chores and homework and putting the kids to bed -- of solitude and of being connected to something outside one’s daily life. In this way, it’s an example of why I read poetry. I’m able to take a moment and read four lines that transport me to the eternal.