Pilgrimage

How varied my many pilgrimages,
Undertaken through the growing ages.

Ranging from the naive to profound,
Each presented method I have tried.

The tiny temple of boyhood days,
A form so dear received obeisance.

I perambulated with mumbling heart,
My appeal with a childish craft.

A long sleep intervened unawares,
My youth spent on transient mores.

The summons arrived on an evening,
Found my heart the message receiving.

By another’s verse the goddess propitiated,
Through long repetition and patience unabated.

To Deities on hills I have climbed to,
In short breaths chanced something true.

I kept at this in all seasons,
In foreign skies and unfamiliar shores.

All sap was drawn from methods old,
“Attempt the new”, I was then told.

Then a curious inward turn I took,
Found a pilgrimage in every book,

Of Him who logged all his journeys,
Through occult lands and soul countries.

By this specific Sun’s distinct rays,
I formed an outline, followed its trace.

In each word a world I found,
All then changed to hallowed ground.

Now my pilgrimage has new shape,
Convention and reason it does escape.

In each phrase and poem I jot,
Found a living aspiration’s thought.

I find my pilgrimages now shining,
In thought and gesture aspiring.

A sacred trail becomes a common road,
Whose sand and soil I musing trod.

A hundred pilgrimage miles I earn,
In each day of this Divine Sun.

Poem