Gypsies, rock stars, RV-dwelling retirees and migrant farm workers — they live life on a perpetual road trip. Where Kerouac was taking a long vacation, his farm worker friends didn’t have that luxury. On the other hand, Tomas Rivera wrote about that life because he and his family lived it.

I realize poetry is a very personal thing, and it’s hard to recommend poetry to others. But Rivera’s The Searchers really moved me. They searched for work and meaning. They sought each other and God. “Searching at Leal Middle School” connects his people to a homestead, these children on the edge of moving out on the road to work with their parents.

I think about a life in motion, remembering back to my early childhood, and being paralyzed by a fear that my house would burn down or be invaded by robbers. A child on the road would have much different fears. Tomas Rivera’s first written work was done at the age of twelve following a car accident. How jarring that experience must have been, and evidently, inspiring.

And now, I’m living my life safe, in a brick house with more room than I need, with a steady job, a savings account and plenty of insurance. Meanwhile, folks like Wade over at Vagabond Journey are constantly moving. Even as he starts a family, he continues to travel, albeit a little bit slower.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 4:49 pm and is filed under road tripping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.