O Riverside Park, O Walks of 2009
O Riverside Park
O you long, slim, man-made beauty!
Accept this thank you letter for a year of walks with Esau.
Thank you, Riverside Park, for tepee builders 
and basket weavers 
thank you for sculptors of driftwood
and balancers of stone
thank you for cross-country skiers
and crazy skateboard boys
Thank you for trees, tree holes and painters of trees
Thank you for fish on stones
for dogs on hay bales 
for sports drinks on trees 
and conspiring red riding hoods
Thank you for your long, narrow palm that holds the living secrets of the Great Retaining Wall on your eastern side 
and, on the west, the fishy banks of the Hudson 
Most of all, thank you for holding safe the wild things so they can go about their eternal and mysterious animal business right under our city noses.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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Out walking the dog 
May 15, 2010 at 1:23 pm
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Wills, Out walking the dog. Out walking the dog said: For It's My Park! Day, my ode to Riverside Park: http://bit.ly/c9UI2F […]
April 24, 2010 at 2:00 pm
I love this Melissa. It is so much fun what you have put together.
I am also a true park lover. I am madly in love with Trout Lake Park in Vancouver where I walk my dog Bella everyday. I can totally relate to all the wonderful particular things that you can find in these urban green spaces. In the park, beyond all the wonderful wildlife I have also seen someone dressed up as a fried eggs and sad clowns riding bicycles,the Madhatter and the Cheshire cat,dogs,lovers and fires up trees,an angel and Bella as a puppy almost getting snatched one evening by a Bard owl. I too love the way these magical and alive places exist with fragile dragonflies et al, midst all the the concrete and hurtling massses of our modern world.
Thank you for your inspiring blog. This is the first time I have ever contributed to a blog! Wow!
April 24, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Atty! How lovely to have you visit NYC, at least in the virtual world. Trout Lake Park is a treasure. Some of your paintings have really captured its magic (and madness – thinking of the crazy racing guy in the wheelchair). Hope you continue to visit. We miss you all, including Bella.
January 2, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I love your take on the park and its lively, lovely sentient beings and all their goings-on. Keep on truckin’ and Happy New Year!
January 1, 2010 at 10:23 pm
This is so beautiful, really so beautiful.
January 1, 2010 at 4:29 pm
A gorgeous and inspiring blog. More of you and Esau on the Riverside please.
December 31, 2009 at 11:30 pm
LOVE IT!! Melissa this is great. We’re just getting ready to go out for New Year, Hope you and family have a good one. Please…more blogging in the new year! xoC