Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Alan Shapiro’s "Nordic Track" is a compact yet deeply resonant meditation on monotony, repetition, and the illusion of progress. The poem’s brevity and clipped, rhythmic lines mirror the mechanical motion of the NordicTrack exercise machine, which serves as both a literal object and a metaphor for the larger existential condition of movement without advancement. Through its simple, imperative phrasing, the poem captures the tension between effort and futility, between the illusion of control and the reality of stagnation.

The poem begins with physical instruction: "Push into the straps pick up the reins / move out slow and clumsy forget you have brains." The second-person imperative creates an immediacy, as if the speaker is guiding both the body and mind into submission. The act of strapping in, of taking control, is undercut by the directive to "forget you have brains." This suggests an intentional surrender to the mechanical repetition of exercise, a disengagement from thought in favor of pure motion. The juxtaposition of "move out" with "slow and clumsy" sets up the paradox of the NordicTrack experience—it mimics forward movement but remains static, an exercise in simulated progress.

The next lines reinforce this idea: "glide to the rhythm step up the pace / slide into boredom accept its embrace." The language shifts from clumsiness to a kind of smooth efficiency, but the result is not exhilaration or achievement—it is boredom. The phrase "accept its embrace" suggests that boredom is not just a side effect but an inevitable destination, something to be welcomed rather than resisted. The enjambment between lines contributes to the sense of continuous, unbroken motion, reflecting the repetitive glide of the machine.

The final stanza drives home the existential undertone: "time?s disappearing the time?s past repair / keep yourself moving keep going nowhere." The first line compresses time itself, turning it into something both vanishing ("disappearing") and already lost ("past repair"). This duality creates a sense of futility—there is no way to reclaim lost time, yet it continues to slip away. The final command, "keep yourself moving keep going nowhere," distills the poem’s central paradox. The act of movement, which should signify progress, is revealed to be circular, pointless. The repetition of "keep" emphasizes persistence despite the acknowledged futility, reinforcing the idea that this is a condition not just of exercise but of existence.

Shapiro’s "Nordic Track" operates on multiple levels: as a literal description of working out, as a critique of modern routines, and as an existential reflection on the passage of time. The poem suggests that despite all our efforts to move forward, we remain locked in place, performing actions that simulate progress while ultimately leading nowhere. The NordicTrack, designed to improve fitness, becomes a metaphor for the way human life often unfolds—repetitive, disciplined, yet unable to escape the fundamental truth that time, once lost, cannot be reclaimed. The poem’s tight, rhythmic structure mirrors this inevitability, making it a succinct yet profound statement on the illusion of motion in a world where true advancement is elusive.

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