Poem: The Lonely Runner

The Lonely Runner

The whole street’s abuzz

With bees in the maple trees

As I walk along singing the song

Of the lonely runner.

Spring is sublime in time

When winter’s grapple must topple

And I regain the refrain

Of the lonely runner.

The ground now abounds

In the brown drain of rain

Drying now ‘neath the feet

Of the lonely runner.

Gaining speed through greed

As the bees in the trees 

Buzz at the sounds

Of the lonely runner.

April 2025

About This Poem

I wrote this poem following the patterns of my own running by the seasons, hence the four stanzas. It, like running, is somewhat rhythmical and I chose to rhyme internally rather than end rhyme so that it can sound sing songy without looking that way. I wanted to play with poetic sound effects, just like I like to play around while I'm running. Right now, I have a knee injury and can't run so when I ran across this poem it rang true. I was really hoping to do a fall half marathon, but alas... The picture is self-explanatory. St. George was the marathon I ran that qualified me for Boston which I did run the next year in 1988. I found it hard to find a picture of a "lonely" runner since I don't typically take pictures of people running alone.