Pilgrimage

What distance from here to there
if measured in sweat or skin
A beggar's purse once full
no name or want of kin?

 

The silent man moves forward
away from all he's known

The hulls of seeds left scattered
atop grey ash and brittle bone

 

The sum still to be counted
the weight of life in kind
Slips through his withered fingers

as he straightens his old spine

 

Erect and feeling purpose
he makes a solemn vow
Steps into the vast nowhere
where he resides even now

 

A man without a nightmare
cannot discern a dream
A beggar with a hollow stoop
is not the fool he seems

 

Sometimes in the northern night
just before they die
Pilgrims in bejeweled coats
cast gold against the sky

Reviews

[Crowley]

Heres a little gem that defies the definition I painted on your head with the stuff I have previously read. The last two stanzas are crushing and over all this is a an amazing write. Makes me feel a little lost when reading it, leaving the familiar to explore the new while exciting at the outset can be fraught with danger. Yet we carry on because around the next corner is the place where we were meant to be.

[Charles]

It's always a pleasure to come back to the touchstone of your poetry where meter doesn't interfere with rhythm and the syntax of lines is not a bit forced to complete rhymes. The enigmatic last stanza is especially good. I'll have to come visit more often.

[Dane Osborne]

Sometimes in the northern night
just before they die
Pilgrims in bejeweled coats
cast gold against the sky

Another surprise. I am amazed by your versatility.

[Emily B]

it took my breath away

[LJW]

WKK you vested m**********r. :-) i worked at this one and I'm tired. Missed you.

[W.k.kortas]

Who are you writing formal poetry 'n at? It's almost like you draped a cardigan around your shoulders. The rhyme and pacing is effortless, the language and visual aspects just right. Fine, fine work.

[roarke]

This is a "real" poem. Everything in it is alive and breathing. Nothing cryptic, all message. Seems you've been on the pilgrimage a few times....