You keep walking.
You just keep walking
because you were made in motion;
moreover, bumps are fly-by-night
and besides, there are many things to see;
furthermore, walking is both prayer
and communion.

Some days you might get knocked off your feet
with buts and yets and on-the-contraries;
nevertheless, you keep walking
like an improv actor full
of yes-ands.

Yes, you might go down on your knees
with an although-this-might-be-true
or a nonetheless or a still…

But you always have a meanwhile with you.
For example, meanwhile you will stand up and say,
“how did this however or that conversely whack me down?”

And you keep walking
for you are not this up against that,
nor are you brawling the life stream.
You are just walking in and out of the wind,
which is the work of receiving and giving,
the walk of scholarship, the walk to knowing,
to add, to compare, to prove,
to show exception,
to conclude.

Thus, you are just doing your thing
vis-à-vis this walking, strolling the valley
or sauntering through the woods
or wandering the world,
that is just like I am,
albeit windy and roundabout,
walking to you.

 

From The Writer’s Guide to Common Grammar