Thoughts From A Walk - by Terry Lovelette (Paperback)

About the Book

These poems and reflections capture the beauty, serenity, and spirituality the author experiences while walking various trails through the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Book Synopsis

Thoughts From a Walk by Terry Lovelette is a collection of nature poetry and reflective essays inspired by the author's hiking journeys through the mountains of Vermont. The poems capture the beauty, serenity, and spirituality the author experiences while walking various trails, including the famed Long Trail that traverses the spine of the Green Mountains.

The collection begins with poems that describe the author's sensory impressions of the forests, lakes, and rocky ridges he explores. Descriptive verses about the sunrise over Lake Unbagog and the springtime flowers carpeting a trail create vivid images for the reader. Other poems delve into the introspective thoughts and spiritual musings the solitary walks evoke in the author. Themes of finding inner peace, letting go of anxieties, and opening one's heart to the grace of nature run throughout.

The author reflects on feeling insignificant yet connected to the vastness of creation while hiking. A sense of this own smallness in the face of mountains that have stood for eons yet remain ever-changing comes across in awestruck lines. The musicality of birdsong, the tranquility of a hidden waterfall, and the companionship of forest creatures encountered on the trail all inspire verse.

Brief essays providing historical and geographical context alternate with the poems. The author shares interesting facts about the Green Mountains' geological formation and influence from glaciers and volcanoes. He also expresses gratitude to the Green Mountain Club for building and maintaining Vermont's hiking trails.

Overall, Thoughts From a Walk gifts readers with a sublime walk in the woods without leaving home. The poems and essays capture the restorative and spiritual powers of nature. Readers step into contemplative mindset, appreciating the insights and graces that time spent walking in the mountains can bring.

Review Quotes

"With a poet's heart, mystic's mind and naturalist's curiosity, Lovelette takes the reader on rambling saunters in his beloved mountains. You feel like it's just Terry and you connecting to the profound simplicity of Nature. Sprinkled with meditations, poems and prayerful moments, each page is like a path into undiscovered Beauty. . .This book is well worth slipping into a pack for the trail, or gently musing in silence by the fireside."

Chris Highland - author of Meditations of Henry David Thoreau and A Freethinker's Gospel

"I'd love nothing more than to be walking through the lush forests of Vermont's Green Mountains right now. But my full-time work in urban Los Angeles makes that impossible. Yet, thanks to Terry Lovelette, I can experience those mountains right now through his essays and poems in Thoughts From a Walk. These writings are an invitation to walk with Terry on the forested mountains of Vermont, to soak in their splendor and learn from their wisdom.

Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts - Senior Strategist, Max De Pree Center for Leadership

Anyone who loves the outdoors and takes comfort in the restorative powers of nature will feel at home with Thoughts From a Walk. Lovelette's appreciation for the wonder of the woods comes through the pages as he weaves together personal reflection, poetry, and philosophy drawn from decades exploring the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Michael DeBonis - Green Mountain Club Executive Director

"For those of us who love to walk the mountains of the east, a lovely volume to stick in the rucksack--or to read by the fire on stormy winter nights. It captures the rhythms of these forests and peaks, and of the people who care for them."

Bill McKibben - author Radio Free Vermont; Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College

Some people walk just to reach a destination. Terry Lovelette's hikes are a prayer. And Terry understands that prayer is a form of deep and respectful listening. In his collection of essays Thoughts from a Walk... Green Mountain Musings Terry takes his readers along with him. He shares with us not only the natural beauty that shapes his soul but also the deep wisdom that nature imparts to him. It did my heart good to walk with Terry through these pages.

Bishop Jacob W. Owensby, PhD, DD, Chancellor of Sewanee: The University of the South; author of several books including Looking for God in Messy Places and A Resurrection Shaped Life.