Skip to main content

Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 13 - Walk-On-By Society

 Sometimes a passing phrase cuts through the noise of the day and stays with you. I recently came across a video shared by @modelstrangers on Threads, where a man—soft-spoken but resolute—spoke about the loneliness we often feel even when surrounded by millions, and the deep importance of respecting every person, no matter their role in society.

His words reminded me of how easy it is to walk past others without truly seeing them. And how powerful it can be when we choose to see. This poem was born from that moment of reflection.

Walk-On-By Society

Millions of footsteps echo,
side by side,
but hearts pass like shadows—
unseen, untouched,
eyes fixed forward,
never meeting yours.

In the crowd,
you could scream,
and still be
an empty whisper.

Photo by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz : https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-man-with-a-broom-and-a-dustpan-19408637/

This is a walk-on-by world,
where silence is safer
than kindness,
where pain is private
and everyone is "fine."

But listen—
never underestimate the quiet ones,
the bent-back man with a broom,
the woman washing windows
with the sunrise in her eyes.

They carry whole galaxies in their silence.
They remember who says thank you,
and who doesn't look twice.

The world has tilted toward indifference,
but you—
you can tilt it back.

Look up.
See them.
See each other.
And bow, even just a little,
to the worth in every life
you walk by.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 12 - How That Worked Out.

In a world unraveling—from genocide in Gaza to war in Ukraine and Congo, from rising fascism to ecological collapse—many choose silence, hoping distance will spare them. But silence is not neutral. It is not protection. This poem is a reflection on complicity, comfort, and the cost of staying quiet while the world burns. How That Worked Out —a poem for the age of excuses The children of Gaza do not dream of war, but they wake beneath it, wrapped in dust and grief and headlines written by cowards. In Congo, the river carries the weight of our luxury— blood-colored cobalt, futures mined by hands too small for the machines they power. And still, the world scrolls, safe in its distance, safe in its silence. The forest doesn’t argue with the axe. The ocean doesn’t plead with the net. They remain silent, wanting only to live— and they die anyway. Those who say silence protects you should ask the land how that worked out. Photo by Anderson Santos: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-doing-...

Stone and Signal - Episode 3: The Fire and the Frost

Welcome back to Stone and Signal.  If you haven't heard the first episode yet you can find information on Episdoe 1  here  and Episode 2 here . The Podcast Links Edpisode 3 on YouTube Episode 3 on Spotify The Essay The Transcript  What Doesn’t Scale Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-boat-with-oars-on-both-side-during-golden-hour-panoramic-photography-33582/ We’ve built a culture obsessed with scale. If something can’t be made faster, bigger, more efficient, it’s dismissed as quaint—or worse, irrelevant. We praise the viral, the exponential, the optimized. We’re told to build audiences, to batch content, to repurpose our thoughts into ever more digestible forms. Nothing is allowed to stay small. Nothing is allowed to simply be. But there’s a quiet power in what refuses to scale. A handwritten letter. A meal cooked slowly for one person. A moment of real attention, offered without a motive. A poem read aloud to no one but yourself. These are...