Off the Beaten Path

Off the beaten path
  After walking on cement sidewalks
  Strolling on cedar mulch paths
  Crossing asphalt paved streets 
  Errands and missions done this summer day.

Off the beaten path
I wanted to walk through unmown grasses
  Under trees untrimmed or shaped
  Expectation only of stepping outside of the box
  Being part of the natural world

Off the beaten path
Books were the farthest thing from my mind
  Books of poetry and essay written from hearts that have seen too much
  Water wrinkled, dusty, alone deep in the Garry Oak meadow
  Painful pasts full of trauma and addiction transformed with words

Off the beaten path
In the tall golden grass of summer
A small book was abandoned, left behind and forgotten,
   waiting for someone to find it and value it’s deep meaning,
      give the moisture wrinkled book a home out of dust and weather.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”

~ Anaï Nin

MegaphoneMagazine.com

Megaphone (Voices of the Street), published monthly, is a magazine sold on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria by homeless and low-income vendors. Megaphone is published monthly by the not-for-profit Street Corner Media Foundation in Victoria, B.C. 

Megaphone’s mission statement is:  “Megaphone’s goal is to provide a voice and an economic opportunity for homeless and low-income people while building grassroots support to end poverty.”