Today’s poem is “Walden Pond” by Michael Alpert. Michael was born in Bangor, where he still lives. He has worked as a writer, editor, visual artist, and book designer for most of his adult life. Currently, Michael serves as Director of the University of Maine Press., as President of the Greater Bangor Area Branch of the NAACP, and as Chair of the Board of Ethics for the City of Bangor.
He writes, “The first draft of ‘Walden Pond’ was written in September 2018, after my first visit to the site of Thoreau’s cabin. I and my cousin Sandra Alpert Rogers walked around the pond, an easy hike of just under two miles. When I spotted a loon swimming peacefully at the pond’s center, I fantasized that she was a descendent of the loon Thoreau playfully chased, one October day, in his boat, as he recounted in the ‘Brute Neighbors’ chapter of Walden.”
Poem copyright © 2018 Michael Alpert