Saturday, September 3, 2016

THERE IS ALWAYS A COMPASS



WESTERING THE DAYS

I am amazed at how bricklaying
and wall building
is all simple muscle memory.

Lay the mortar, set the brick, repeat.
Build line upon line,
course after course.

It has been a long time
since I thought a wall
was a good thing.

The home I live in,
it is a frightening place,
I have been told.

The groundskeeper keeps trying,
keeps trying to lay chalk lines for walls
but is finding it difficult on unmowed fields.

Fields of tall grass, chicory, and clover.
I am dead in the overgrowth
but the body will never be found.

I am content to not be found
just as I am pleased to be lost
without compass.

I know how to find my way.
Through the overgrown weeds and walls,
though I am dead in the weeds, to walls.

East is East, adjust 5 degrees magnetic
put back to sun and move,
that is called westering a day.

© M Durfee
9/3/16

13 comments:

  1. It's easier when no compass is needed. Instinct(?) usually knows the way, if you allow yourself to hear it. Westering... what a beautiful word *kisses*

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    1. Good lord Shadow ain't that the truth. Instinct, gut feeling, aches directing one to the right or left--I use 'em all ongoing. Right back at you with the love.

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  2. I'm only happy to be lost until lunch time. Then I really want to know my way to the kitchen.

    Can you tell I'm on a diet?

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    Replies
    1. Alice you're trying to crack me up--count yourself a success!

      Delete
  3. I will really feel lost without the compass. It takes a lot of courage and fortitude to keep oneself intact, without walls, paved fields and compass. A good write Mark!

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    1. Thank you Grace, I felt at home with this one. Ya know I think you are saying that you need a moral compass--I think that is akin to muscle memory, them that have it use it without thought and them that gave it away rarely find it again.

      I like the idea of wandering aimlessly until I get to my destination without the constraint of time and gravity holding me back.

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  4. I like the fact that muscle memory lasts longer than my regular memory

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    1. Yes Charles i thin as I age that without muscle memory I would have no recollection at all.

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  5. I keep thinking that you could hire Trump to build a wall

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    1. Hire? Seriously Jeff? I wouldn't hire Trump or Clinton or anyone else who espouses the idea of politics as fervently as they do.

      in order for any of them to actually build walls I'd have to let them in--naw I ain't going there bro.

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  6. i like this, mark. i had to look up 'westering' and duh, it was obvious. but how could five degrees magnetic get you from east to west?

    did you watch that trump spectacle in detroit?\

    I don't operate with a compass much of the time. I close my eyes and feel my way. so far i'm still okay.

    my father was a bricklayer and he would like this poem. it feels like home to me.

    love you, mark
    kj

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    Replies
    1. kj East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. Westering is simply a way to find North so you can choose your direction. Once you know where TRUE North is you can head out on the proper course.

      There is Magnetic North, which is 5 degrees off from True North, the iron core of the planet throws off celestial navigation when using a compass with a magnetic needle.

      Compasses are useful for navigation but generally speaking I prefer to just go in the general direction I believe my destination is in.

      Trump in Detroit was a farce--and no I do not participate in the lunacy that is called global politics.

      Thank you for the kind words over this assemblage of words.

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  7. The walls of Pangaea Calvin. Much harder to build and tear down--though survival dictates we find a way to do both.

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So Walking Man I was thinking...