Franklin Park Archives - Anali's Next Amendment

Last weekend, some friends and I went for a walk around Franklin Park. This park is Boston’s largest open space and the crown jewel of Frederick Law Olmsted‘s Emerald Necklace.

It was a beautiful day and October’s colors were in full effect. One of my friend’s co-workers recently bought a home and was surprised to find that she has an apple orchard. Can you imagine? A surprise apple orchard!

Because now she has too many apples, she’s giving them away to everyone she knows. My friend took some and I was lucky enough to leave our walk with dozens of apples. I stewed some with ground cinnamon, ginger and a touch of honey. I still have about a dozen left and not yet sure what I’ll do with them. Maybe make another Dutch baby? An apple crisp?

In any event, these gorgeous beauties inspired me to write a found poem. Back in 2010, on the first iteration of this blog, I discovered found poetry. I’m forever hooked! I love poetry and writing found poetry is easier than starting from scratch. It’s fun too. Like a word game!

To write a found poem, find some text – a book, magazine article, blog post, etc. As you read it, pull out words to create your poem. Ta da! You wrote a poem.

Below is the found poem I wrote using the article 5 Health Benefits of an Apple from EatingWell.

An Apple Found Poem

Doctor away!

Truth.

Apple-licious ways.

Flesh and skin.

Cooked and baked.

Fresh.

2 apples.

8 weeks.

You benefit.

Reduced risk.

Thanks.

You guessed it – apples.

Slices satisfied people.

Applesauce, apple juice.

Granny Smith, McIntosh, Golden Delicious.

Tops among fruits.

Don’t toss the peel.

Found.

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This morning, I finally made my way to a free yoga class in Boston! It was an Afro Flow Yoga® class taught by founder, Leslie Salmon Jones.

The class was wonderful! It was quite a workout and very hot under the bright morning sun. I worked up quite a sweat!

There was live drumming by her husband and co-founder Jeff Jones. Looking over the vast green space, it felt tranquil and what I imagine Frederick Law Olmstead may have hoped for in the future for this space he designed.

It was nice being in a yoga class where I wasn’t the only diversity. After all, brown people invented yoga, but often when yoga is shown in the media, it is usually very young thin white women who are portrayed. Yoga is far more than that. It is for every body.

In addition to it being a multiracial group, there were people of all ages and several men too.

As we moved to the beat of the drums, our teacher asked if we could feel the ancestors. I felt warm and happy thinking about those who came before me and thankful for this day and this time.

The drums added a deeper layer of spirituality to the class. While the class made me feel at one with the African Diaspora, the stone walls felt Druid and Stonehenge too. Very ancient. It was fitting that we are still under the influence of a blue moon.

There is a lot of history in this place. Schoolmaster Hill got its name from Olmstead who named it after poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a schoolmaster in Roxbury. He lived in a cabin here, before there was a park.

While he may not have been happy living there, centuries later, on a very warm Saturday on the first day of August, unlike Emerson, I did indeed find a slice of happiness on that same Schoolmaster Hill.