Walking

Walking is central to the imagery of "Man Listening to Disc." The poem is structured around the speaker's stroll through the streets of Manhattan. What's important about the speaker's walk in the poem is that he isn't heading to some major destination. He's just strolling around and taking in the sights. This is a poem about enjoying the present moment and living in the present, and the speaker's walk is a representation of this.

• Line 2: The speaker's "ambling" along a city street here. The use of the word "ambling" suggests that the speaker is relaxed, he's chilled, he isn't in a hurry. Walking is a big motif in this poem, and this line introduces us to it. 
• Lines 3-6: Here the speaker refers to Sonny Rollins, saying that it's as if he's "right beside" him on the street. So the speaker expresses his connection to the jazz musicians that he listens to by imagining them actually walking beside him on the street. 
• Lines 16-17: In these lines, the speaker refers to Tommy Potter joining him and Sonny Rollins "on this breezy afternoon." So again, the speaker evokes an image of these jazz musicians walking along with him. The speaker uses walking together as a motif to suggest just how close and connected he feels to the musicians. 
• Lines 22-25: Here the speaker says that Thelonious Monk, the jazz pianist, is joining along on the walk through New York City streets. He's managed to "motorize" his "huge piano/ so he could be with us today." So the speaker makes us imagine Monk wheeling his gigantic piano along the street, as he walks beside the speaker and the other musicians. This image develops the idea of a whole community of musicians and music lovers walking along together. 
• Lines 26-29: The speaker says he feels "like the center of the universe" as he walks and listens to "'The Way You Look Tonight.'" These lines associate walking with music. The music is making the speaker feel good, the walking is making him feel good, and the combination of these two gives him a high: he feels "like the center of the universe." 
• Lines 35-37: The speaker says that the "five of us" (he and his jazz musicians) are about to "angle over/ to the south side of the street." We're getting a sense not only of where he's headed (to the south side of the street), but of the fact that he's headed there as a part of a group of people. 
• Line 46: The speaker's hoping that he and his crew will make it "downtown." These lines frame the poem as a movement toward a destination. It's a simple destination—the speaker isn't hoping to make it to the moon. He's just hoping to make it downtown. But his walking has direction; it has a purpose.