“The Dancers in the Plaza”
“Nomad’s Song”
JOHN GOULD FLETCHER
Let mine lips salute the rain—
Salute the rain—
As the sunlight blazes, wavers,
over the long stamping lines
of the dancers in the plaza:
I’ll never be the one
who grows roots out of her feet.
I’m a traveler.
I live to wander.
cc by 2.5
There have always been nomadic folk:
the Bastarnae,
the Samartians
the Alans,
the Costoboci,
the Carpi too.
We all have our reasons:
Wanderlust?
A search for new lands?
Opposition to status?
A desire to leave behind guilt and depression?
Or just a yen to see it all?
Originally from Arkansas, John Gould Fletcher spent much of his life in England. He eventually retuned to Arkansas with his second wife, the noted author of children’s books, Charlie May Simon. They built a house outside of Little Rock but traveled frequently to New York, the Southwest. Sadly, suffering from depression, Fletcher committed suicide by drowning himself in a pond nearby his home.
NOMAD’s SONG
By the blaze of the last campfire
We will eat, we will drink, we will be merry.
Whether you are the one who stays or the one who wanders, be merry.
Alice-Catherine 