Sense Walk – A Poem

This was inspired by witnessing participants of our Writing Wild gathering do what we call a sense walk, where one is blindfolded and a partner guides them through experiencing the landscape through all their other senses. It’s a beautiful thing to see, no pun intended.
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Blind from their chrysalis
they take the first delicate steps

like new walkers of the dawn
in the bright meadow of life

a late winter curiosity guides them
with a friendly hand at their back

and butterfly voices
flit across their swallowtail innocence

as sand sift through
their blackberry bramble hands

like the grains of childhood time
falling upward into their truth

they kneel for a mugwort blessing
feathered across their faces

flowing with the emergence
of spring wings

-Ryan Van Lenning