Central Park Walk November 2022

1
It’s crisp but not yet glove weather.
Elongated shadows fall from the autumn sun.
Above the sky is so blue it looks unreal.

2
People are seated along the path, faces turned up toward the sun.
Construction workers eat their lunches together in Spanish.
Empty benches line the shaded side of the street.

3
Girls in short plaid school uniforms drift in bunches.
A couple walks slowly, holding hands.
A nanny sings softly to the child in her carriage.

4
Dogs wait patiently as their owners chat.
Squirrels chase each other, rustling leaves and bouncing branches.
Birds call in many languages; I only see sparrows and starlings.

5
The remains of the Marathon are piled up along Fifth Avenue.
Vestiges of Halloween decorations still linger on buildings.
Pine cones and needles mingle with oak leaves on the ground.

Brendan at earthweal discussed this week the intimacy of our landscapes. He suggested “a walk on the wild side”. This is not exactly a wild walk, but it’s my landscape, where I often go both to get from Point A to Point B here in the city, and to get outside of myself.

Also linking to dVerse OLN, hosted by Sanaa.

45 thoughts on “Central Park Walk November 2022”

  3. Wonderful shots of your park, Kerfe. I’m surprised at how few people are there with a city of your population. Those evergreen trees have some long needles. Looks to be a wonderful day for a walk.

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    1. Thanks, Jade, the weather was perfect. In the middle of a weekday the park is not that crowded. But I was surprised at how quiet upper Fifth Avenue was. Not so the west side. But of course when I returned all the many schools in my neighborhood were letting out.

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  7. Wild walking here — it isn’t the natural surroundings but the wild mind that makes it so, which can find wilderness everywhere. Great pics, reminds me of walking in NYC and Chicago. So much walking in urban environments.

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    1. Thanks Brendan. I’ve never owned a car,and since the pandemic forced me into walking, I rarely even use public transportation any more. It’s much better for the mind and body.

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    1. I’m glad you can see me outdoors too now! I walk everywhere, and can usually find a route that takes me through either Central Park or Riverside Park, even if it takes longer to get there. I usually don’t take a lot of photos, but it was such a beautiful day, I kept seeing things that I wanted to record.
      OLN is not my thing. Sometimes I watch part of the recordings if they make and post them. Poems sound very different when read aloud.

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        1. New York is not all midtown. Outside of that it’s actually a bunch of small neighborhoods like anywhere. There are definitely too many cars though. But that’s true everywhere I’ve ever been in the US, even rural areas. At least the city is walkable–you really don’t need a car like you do most places.

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          1. I’ve always found that city centres are more walkable than the suburbs where schools and shops are often too far away to walk, and there’s no proper bus service because everyone has a car, because the shops and schools are so far away…

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            1. That is true of most suburbs–some don’t even have sidewalks–to discourage anyone walking. I hated growing up in the suburbs for that very reason. If the school bus didn’t come (which happened way too often) we were scrambling to find someone’s mother with a car to drive us to school.

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              1. We have the no pavement thing in commercial centres. Ask directions and you need to follow a road map. Even the big hospitals are like that. You get directions of how to drive to the service you need, but nobody has any idea of how you walk there.

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  12. I love city walks. Washington DC is also a wonderful city for walking. And once you’re out — at that walking pace — you just notice so many little details of life that otherwise one misses in the bustle of doing. New York must have so many wonderful details to savor. It’s such a big, varied city. I’ve only been there a handful of times, but I was always amazed at its charm. Everywhere you look you see something interesting. Your poem catches that sense of wonder.

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    1. My younger daughter and I went to Washington for her February break when she was a senior in high school, as a reward for completing her college applications. We had wonderful weather and walked everywhere, amazed that the Smithsonian museums were all free. And we didn’t nearly see everything we wanted to see. She later worked there for a summer for the ADL, and liked the city much better than Boston where she had been for 5 years. But she still likes NYC best.

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      1. New Yorker should like New York best! And Washingtonians should prefer DC! It’s only fitting. I’m glad that you guys enjoyed the city. If you’re ever in DC in summer, during a break from the museums, head to Georgetown and check out the magnificent ancient ginko trees near 27th street. There are lots of ginkos in the city (thanks to some wise folks of the past) but that particular stand is especially nice.

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        1. I used to live across the street from a small park full of ginkos…so I’m sure I would enjoy them! I haven’t been going anywhere for awhile, but that’s bound to change at some point…

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  13. It is so wonderful that cities set aside green spaces for people to enjoy. Central Park is a wonder in the middle of the city……….lovely that you get to walk there as you go about………….

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    1. Thanks Sherry. It’s a good refuge. There are very few places in the city which aren’t in easy walking distance of nature. Riverside Park is equally wonderful and there are green spaces uptown, along the East River, and downtown as well. The outer boroughs have even more, plus the ocean.

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