Same Path, Different Destination

A Poem of Sorts

Following the Monk’s map, today I made for Ventoux’s Summit

For the vision, I imagined, buried upon its peak

Necessity my only burden, I searched through The Confessions

Hoping light from heaven might descend upon me.

Augustine’s echo greeted me from the expanse,

“Men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains

And the mighty waves of the sea

And the circuit of the oceans

And the revolutions of the stars,

But themselves they consider not”

In the altitude I sought clarity

Upon the heights I sought to understand

Assuming, in the journey that, “Remorseless toil conquers all”

So I cried out, like a shepherd once before,

“Shall I ascend only to disappointment

Finding ‘nothing but fatigue and regret’

And clothes and body torn

By the rocks and branches?”

“Everything looks perfect from far away…” lyrics in the wind.

Then I supposed I saw you waving from the valley

And I despaired the distance I’d put between you and me

_____________

“And I beseech you, in turn to pray that these vague and wandering thoughts of mine may some time become firmly fixed, and, after having been vainly tossed about from one interest to another, may direct themselves at last toward the single, true, certain, and everlasting good”¹

1. Francesco Petrarca. “Ascent of Mont Ventoux” (circa 1350)