Handbook for Explorers 10

Getting lost's the better part of getting there;
The other half's not knowing where you were
At first; or what it is you may discover -
God's word or a herb that'll provide a cure
For broken bones or dislocated minds -
As darkness wraps up the mountain face
Where you flounder, and contrary winds
Give loose advice; and confused, you tread space
And, falling, wonder how long until
You land; find, not oblivion but snow
To cushion you, and then guess you're still
Alive in a dead world of ice and rock,
At whose heart lurk new secrets to unlock.

Handbook for Explorers 9

Each foot's a mile, each minute a day;
In each harsh breath you feel and hear shingle
Heaving up the shore; at each crest you stay
A while, look back to see nothing at all
But mist close in around you, like a valve
You've come through; each crest a peak, peak a crest
Above it. And above that the sky's black cave
Spewing from its mouth long skeins of mist.
Best not to think much about getting there
Just to keep climbing, your mind empty,
Expecting no reward but the joy and rush of fear
As you get closer to the ever widening sky.
Then at the true summit, you stop at last
Lost in the clouds till, curtains drawn apart,
You see, as though in the future of the past,
A climpse of light and somewhere else to start.

Handbook for Explorers 8

Here there'll surely be a fresh obstacle:
A beckoning mountain face, bleak and sheer
That will leave no option but a frontal
Assault; and the need both to be there
And to have climbed it, and find a place to love
Beyond it, where beans and potatoes grow,
Such as all fucked up explorers dream of,
But which few of then will ever know.
For you there is no choice: you must move on,
Over mountains and through clouds, with just one
Consolation: everything you've known
Or possessed (when, warmed by the rising sun,
You step lightly upon your chosen track)
Is either in your head or on your back.

Handbook for Explorers 7

You've travelled far, and heard wild parrots call;
Lived among people who shoot monkeys down
From trees, their darts smeared with poison,
Who hear, a mile away, the least footfall.
You've made signs of peace, risked their angry spears,
And danced and drunk, with them, fermented juice;
Repeated words that set your dull brain loose,
Shared rhythms of a hundred thousand years.
But now, your diaries destroyed by damp,
You'll wonder if your journey had a reason,
If you remember what year or season
You left behind; if it's time to decamp
Again, to get back to your starting place;
Although it will, by now, be somewhere else.

Handbook for Explorers 6

It's difficult to explain who you are,
To describe the people and the stories
That made you leave home and impelled you where,
In these far, intractable territories,
With no warning, a stranger's eyes decide
To let you in deeper to discover,
Where blinding spotlights swing and trace inside,
The trail of questions asked over and over
Again: how and why are you here with us?
It was so long ago that you set out,
That you'll not know, lover or incubus,
How you stand, whether to whisper or shout
That you had, in a probing, brief embrace,
Found love's secret; then lost it without trace.

Handbook for Explorers 5

The people here are hard to understand;
Nothing you brought could have eased the way:
As they draw wider circles in the sand
The less you know what they are trying to say.
Expect the unexpected at each step:
Customs that turn yours upside down; language
Without roots you recognise. You're in deep;
Curiousity roused, you want to guage
If there is any interest or hope
In the way they greet you; for you're alone;
Their projects seem to be beyond your scope
And their slogans, chanted in a passion,
Whose source - love, hate or religious belief -
You judge a well of unquenchable grief.

Handbook for Explorers 4

Now it's too late to turn back; the passes
Behind you are blocked with fallen rocks; the plains,
Drowned; and on the sands you crossed, no traces
Of footsteps stay, templates of future plans.
Now figures appear like dots, spare, remote,
That will grow large and strange when they get close,
Till, human eye to human eye, they note
In you, a thing without sense or purpose,
A mushroom person sprung up over night.
You make signs and speak of food and water.
They lead; you follow, nothing to sell or barter,
Bewildered, ready, if needs be to fight
For survival; for you surely cannot tell
If it's fear or hate their cold greetings spell.

Handbook for Explorers 3

Best not to think too much once plans are made.
Leave without goodbyes. Discard the text
Other travellers use; keep little in your head
Except the need to know what happens next
In the story you make up as you go.
Prudence is the first thing to jettison,
Then take your leave of habit and say "no"
To every comfort you have ever known.
New paterns in chaos to discover,
First lose your way, see the needle spin,
Take moon for sun, not know what world you're in,
Till, the first stage of your journey over,
You glimpse a path that seems impossible,
And know, at once, where your next step must fall.

Handbook for Explorers 2

Poised upon this vantage point or that, you
Can expect to see only to the edge
Of what you count as true. And there, an age
Away, breaks a sea, where it seems a new
World starts, or if not new, where old stories
Cease to be in charge, and every certainty
Drowns in the moving water and the sky
Rises downwards, fades, and past thoughts freeze.
Yet, don't think the case is closed: what happens
Next is full of wonder, and what you'll find
May seem to have no use, yet shines and runs
Like water in the gullies of the mind,
Once dry and untenanted like the moon's
Seas, now potent as a new book opened.

Handbook for Explorers

Here's a place to leave, where you prepare
For hardship, discard surplus provisions,
And strain your eyes to see the horizon's
Continuous path, to catch, in its long stare,
The lure of one, parting, who looks over
A shoulder at you; and who you must follow,
If only to touch what's fleeting and know
What comes next; and before you get older
Embrace what you are not. For curiousity's
A virtue, source of energy and love, and travellers
Are lovers, unmoved without a star that dares
Them, with its light and distant promises,
To say goodbye to what they understand,
Good morning to an undiscovered land.