n
The body of land seen at a distance
Is a beautiful, threatening person who
Known in detail, surveyed, charted,
Interests less than my first inventions,
As
in fancy lies the buried seed
From which an ordinary flower blossoms.
Having had hopes of more brilliant things,
Painted creatures, orchidean wonders,
Tidepools of talking fish, or the animal
That stands upon the water and resembles
A mermaid to the woman-hungry sailor,
I know there is such a thing as mirage
To a landless traveller. Beyond beyond
Lies the Western Passage, twisting rivers
And the bays that promise, a shore,
Where island animists learn the nature
Of what we call our nature.
To peer through a glass is to discover
The beauty of emptiness and the terror
Of all that seek to fill it.
Across across grow the spices, jewel–
Bedecked maidens whose fathers, rich
As kings, keep fewer advisers. To claim
A monarch's ear is more valuable than his throne,
When the explorer can create the belief
That something far brighter than the crown
Will reflect him well for now and forever;
The purposes of God and voyages for treasure.
