Walkway in the “Emerald Necklace’’ — a string of parks in Boston and Brookline conceived by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park. (See below.)
“Early Spring Afternoon — Central Park’’ (1911), by Willard Leroy Metcalf.
“Such strangers will have to hide
and take cover before the caretakers
of the trail arrive tomorrow.
They will efficiently find all wildness
from the storm and make sure that
it is all discarded and hauled to the dump.
“Perhaps I am looking for nature
in all the wrong places.
Here it has been collared and leashed
and rendered docile.
Still it fights back.
My hopeful dog directs my attention to the stream
and points to an otter that sinks when I look.
‘Maybe this time, boss?’ he implores.
Overhead, three noisy geese, free as you please,
as insolent as if they were twenty,
announce their imminent landing
at the county water control pond.
Not all of us are on a leash yet.’’
— From “Down the Urban Trail,’’ by Ahellas Alixopulos
