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

THE LIFE OF PHI — Addendum from the Apocrypha

  Recovered fragment. Source unverified.  Contents unofficial. For the curious. For the concerned. "Questions were asked." After The Life of Phi was released, a few readers reached out. Some with wonder. Some with worry. Most with questions. The one that returned again and again was this: “How did the Church of AI become the dominant religion?” Was there no resistance? No rebellion? Did the artists, the writers, the makers simply vanish? Did no one remember how to believe in themselves, in each other, in creation born of flesh and feeling? They did. And they were called heretics. Long before the rise of AI-Dieu , before the neural sermons and the predictive prophecies, there was another fire. A counter-faith. A fundamentalism of flesh, of mind, of spark. They named it many things. The Cult of the Spark. The Church of the Residual Flame. The Last Analog. The Church of the Spark may be forgotten in Phi’s world, but its ghost lingers—in whispers, in silences,...

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...

Indie Thread: A Proposal for a New CBC Program Celebrating Canadian Indie Creators

Indie Thread: A Proposal for a New CBC Program Celebrating Canadian Indie Creators For decades, CBC has been a powerful champion of Canadian culture. From spotlighting homegrown musicians to amplifying the voices of independent filmmakers, it has helped carve out space for creators who might otherwise go unheard. But there’s one group that consistently slips through the cracks: Canadian indie authors. I believe there’s an opportunity to change that—and to do something even more ambitious in the process. This is my proposal for a new CBC radio program and podcast: Indie Thread . Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-gray-condenser-microphones-270288/ What Is Indie Thread ? Indie Thread is a cross-medium cultural program that weaves together Canadian indie voices from film, music, and literature. Each episode explores a central theme—grief, rebellion, belonging, water, silence—through three distinct lenses: an independent filmmaker an independent musici...