October 18th, 2026Local Lines

Hold your horses

I take life slow and easy. What’s to rush?
This is the way I learn my timely lessons,
slow enough to be still and let things brush
lightly against my soul, this lovely essence.
It gives me space to tweak my learning perspectives
and things go well when it’s slow and easy and fun.
It helps me focus my mind on long objectives.
You learn much more on a walk than on a run.
Speeding back through remembered time, I see
how slowly I cottoned on to slowing up
and taking life as I found it, letting it be,
but now my soul is brimming over its cup.
You know the fabulous tale of the hare and the tortoise?
Slowly, slowly, I learnt what the story taught us.

– James Baillie

James is a Glenlyon local. His new poetry collection, Optimystic, is available
now from Paradise Books, Daylesford or Glenlyon General Store.

Local Lines features poetry by locals about local and any other matters.
Please submit poems to Bill Wootton at cottlesbreedge@gmail.com