by Fred Duncan

I sailed a boat,
On a sea so calm and beautiful
That I almost suffocated in its breathless passages.

I walked through a forest,
So green and deep and sombre
That my footsteps and my soul were buried in shadows.

I climbed a mountain,
Its crags swept by such cold mists
That my hands and mind had lost all feeling,
And I could not see the ammonites in the strata of ancient oceans
Or the traces of ferns folded into rock.

I travelled on a road to eternity.
When I arrived, exhausted by my journey,
I was met by those who farewelled me at my birth.
They gave me a map
To the sea, the forest and the mountain.