Today I saw so many things that made me pause,

The man in the bright yellow wellington boots

Walking along the tow path at the side of the canal.

I didn’t write that down because it seemed

So boring at the time, but really it was beautiful.

And so was the purple ribbon, tied to the railings

On the bridge over the rail tracks. I have no idea

Why it was there, so I chose not to write

About that or the dog with no owner, trotting

Quite happily by the side of the road at 5:45

When everyone else sat in a rush hour queue.

And I chose not to write of the girl in the sun dress,

Carrying a pot plant in her circling arms.

I wonder how many things go unnoticed like this,

Far too mundane to commit to plain paper,

Lost to the world in the breezes of time.

I follow a lady on Twitter called Kate Clanchy. She is an English teacher and gets her students to use templates to write the most beautiful poems. Today she had them write about all the things that they saw during the day that didn’t feel worthy of being put in a poem.

I love that idea of capturing the mundane so I really wanted to have a go at this myself. I do find that I focus on some of these weird details when I go on a long run; the things that you wouldn’t normally notice.

I do find that whenever I do the really long ultra runs, I start to see the really strange stuff. Once I saw someone walking a bunny, a dog wearing trainers and a woman praying in the woods while she held a daffodil in her hands. I may well have been hallucinating when I saw some of these things.

But there is most definitely beauty in the everyday detail. You just need to stop and look closely and you will see it.

Much Love

Rachel xx