Floyd Brandt

Roadside Poems: Travels With a Pilgrim Floyd Brandt

Roadsides define the path of pilgrimages and offer places to pause, to meditate and to rest for a while. The poems presented here were selected from those written from the roadsides during my pilgrimage from youth to maturity to age. Always grasping for better words, they are simple attempts to capture and record moments with the language of poetry. The first poem in this series was written on November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. On that morning we dressed our two small children in anticipation of joining the roadside throng on Austin's parade route to welcome President Kennedy. That afternoon I went to my study and wrote the first poem in this volume. The last poem was written on the 50th anniversary of his death. Poetry is but one way for the roadside observer to record the parade of sensations that pass each day. Such poems provide catharsis and the pleasure of seeking images and a new insights, regardless of judgments about quality.