I'm participating in the annual
WGLT Good To Go Commuter Challenge this week, encouraging people to walk, bike, carpool, or take public transportation* instead of driving singly in a car, to help reduce CO2 emissions and be environmentally responsible.
I've been doing this on my own for a good while, of course. In Chicago, I took public transportation everywhere (& did not own a car) for 20 years. Here, I walked or took the bus to jobs, though it's true that colleagues at one job started picking me up at the bus stop, but, hey, that was carpooling! But for 4 years, I commuted to a job 35 miles down the road, and that used up a lot of gas and emitted a lot of CO2. Sorry. So far, I've logged 14 miles of walking, burned 2128 calories doing it (!?!), and avoided 11.97 pounds in CO2 emissions.
Now I mostly work at home, but I am logging my commute to work-related destinations: post office to mail submissions and editing jobs, bank to deposit freelancer checks, poetry readings, etc. I was delighted yesterday to attend a poetry reading by
Katy Didden, who read new poems and poems from her book
The Glacier's Wake. (Paulette Beete, please notice that her book launch is in D.C. on
May 30 at 7:00 p.m. in the Hill Center, Old Naval Hospital! Maybe you can go!)
On my way, I noticed many tulips still blooming. So even though the tulips in my own bed lost their heads and spent themselves in April, those in more respectable (and partly shaded) gardens are still blooming in May. And if you missed yesterday's
sprawl of tulips or
fleurs de mai, just click those phrases to see more fabulous flower photography by
Katinka Matson. And poems!
*I actually dream about public transportation frequently. And write poems about it. Just yesterday one of those poems got rejected! (Another in the batch was accepted!) And here's my public transportation poem "The Human Community" at
Glass: A Journal of Poetry. No tulips in it, just lots of windows. Made of glass.
Update: You can hear the poem
here at WGLT, Poetry Radio.
"The Human Community" with music by Dave Frackenpohl, "So Long," from
Refractions.
Matson's photography is stunning.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your poem in Glass!
Thanks, Maureen. The poem was in Glass a while ago but was pertinent to today's topic. And Glass is a lovely online journal!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your poem, Kathleen. And applaud your effort not to use overmuch gasoline. I think in Europe using public transport is way more normal than in the states, where I understand it's for the poor. I don't really know, but I don't have a driver's license and in the city even if I did would rarely venture out behind the wheel.
ReplyDeleteWe are beginning to improve our passenger train service!
ReplyDeleteIt's Bike to Work Week here--definitely a non-holiday for me! Except that last year, when I bought my new bike, they gave me a discount is observation.
ReplyDeleteIf you're thinking about transportation, that alone does something positive. Sometimes I feel like being a writer means finding all the ways you are weird.
We have a similar initiative this week in the city where I live.
ReplyDeleteAnd ever since I moved into what's essentially the only high-rise apartment building in the city, my subconscious has been fascinated by elevators. Ooo, elevators. Can't stop dreaming of them.
I dream of public transportation too...though I'm usually stressing about how to get where I need to go in those dreams.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the acceptance!!! And thank you for sharing that gorgeous poem up at Glass--really lovely.
ReplyDeleteI am with you on public transit. It's so important--also not as popular here in Columbus, but I take it a couple of times a week downtown. The bus is highly underrated.
ReplyDeleteHope your spring is going beautifully, Kathleen! Xo
Thanks, dears!
ReplyDeleteKim, I am usually trying to get home. Or somewhere I am bound to be late...