The Horizon Leans forward to
Offer space to place New Steps²
The Old Paths are too well Trodden³
I’m not sure Where I am going but it
Is somewhere Other than where I Am⁴
Once we’re on the Road, we’ll begin to
Get some sense of Where it can Take us⁵
The End we are Born to serve yet do not
See Leads us to Escape by an Unseen Path:
When the Moment comes for us to Obey the
Call we Turns aside, obeying a Wayward Instinct⁶
Communing with the Source, Travel the Pathways –
Embrace the Territory & Treasure the Road⁷
“What is the Way?” “Go!” – “Where
Is the Way?” – “Begin Walking it!”⁸
Beyond the Farthest Tracks of any
Domestic beast my Way leads: to
A place where I know No Names⁹
The Way I have Embarked
On is now my One and All¹⁰
¹ Vera S. Flandorf, Things that Never Were
² Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning
³ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
⁴ Jenny Browne, Too Late to Stop Now
⁵ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
⁶ James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
⁷ Dongshan Liangjie tr. SF Zen Center, Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi
⁸ Ummon, quoted by Philip Kapleau, Zen: Merging of East and West
⁹ Wendell Berry, Testament
¹⁰ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi