Something about walking beside a railroad track
Induces fond nostalgia in my mind
As dusty memories come rushing back
No longer in obscurity confined
Is it the steel rails running to forever
Or ties so neatly spaced that lead me on
And from my daily drudgery dissever
As to a kinder place I'm quickly drawn
Railroad tracks are pastoral and silent
Calm, enticing, lovely and serene
Taking me somewhere beyond the present
Outside my life and commonplace routine
The sweet smell of the creosote suffuses
Combining with the greenery nearby
Inducing relaxation as if muses
Were singing incantations to the sky
As images of stately windowed clubcars,
Gondolas each with blackened hills of coal,
Ride behind an engine named "Exemplar"
With syncopated hissing as she rolls
But not today as there are no trains running
On this decrepit long abandoned track
Just bees and moths and butterfly's all shunning
My shadow as it fills each rocky crack
And so I walk with no one else beside me
Absorbing this extraordinary scene
Leaving harsh reality behind me
Engulfed in beauty most have never seen.
Richard D. Lackman, M.D. April 10,2017
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Great beauty of natural scenes. You may like to read my poem, Poet Hunter. Thanks