I outrun
the ship that carries freight
along the Seine, but our speeds don't say
anything about our
performance.
While out running today, along the Seine, I saw a ship. To my surprise, I was faster. Faster than a machine. For a while, it felt quite good. Then I realized, we were not in a race. Whether I was faster or slower than the ship said nothing of how well I was doing on my run. The run was going okay. Not great, not bad. Quite fine. The ship was carrying its freight somewhere. I think not much further up the river, there’s a lock of sorts. Or maybe heavy shipping traffic. Maybe, going upstream, ships simply don’t go that fast when fully loaded. Maybe the ship was doing its job perfectly. Maybe it wasn’t. I really couldn’t tell. Just that I outran it, and that this observation by itself did not help me understand whether I was doing well on my run.
So, I ran along, trying to focus on my rhythm and speed and route to see whether I could get the best performance possible today. I think I did. By my own measures. And not those of others. Or a ship carrying its freight along the Seine.
Poetry Elsewhere
I loved this poem by Charlene Marron, about learning to see: Bittersweet.
Sometimes poetry is not about form, or rhythm, or whatever, but about a thought-experiment. Like describing your botanical self in the way A Christine Myers did. Do yourself a favour and subscribe to her substack, too.
If you buy me coffee, I will send you more poetry. Well, I will send it anyway, but coffee helps :). You can also buy my ebook Thinking of Europe.
It’s always nice to slow down, isn’t it?! Lovely poem Arjan ❣️