January 2026 - Good Advice: A Found Poem

Two years in a row technically doesn’t qualify as a trend or pattern or tradition, but perhaps it does qualify as the start of one. A year ago, as we braced ourselves for the onset of deep winter and the worrying uncertainties of a singularly dreaded new year, I wrote that I had been turning to the journals of Henry David Thoreau for reassurance that beauty and hope could still thrive even amidst the darkest of days. This year I find myself as much in need of that reassurance as ever. Perhaps, you do, too? And so I offer you another “Found” poem gleaned from HDT’s journals. With the exception of the ordering of line and stanza breaks and the final, italicized couplet, nothing of this poem is mine. The words, the images, and - most importantly - the good advice are all the ever wise and observant Henry’s.

Good Advice: A Found Poem

Henry David Thoreau, journal entry 12/25/1856

Take long walks 

in stormy weather 

or through deep snows 

in the fields and woods,

if you would keep

your spirits up. 

Deal with brute nature. 

Be cold and hungry 

and weary.

Spring will come.

It always does.

Henry David Thoreau, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817 and died there in 1862. In between, he observed and reflected on nature as no one had before nor has anyone since.

Thanks to the dedication and generosity of The Walden Woods Project https://www.walden.org/collection/journals/ , Thoreau’s journals are available to all who wish to plumb their wisdom.