To Travel Well

If you want to travel well

you must be prepared to lose things

to lose the certitude of best ways to do things

or right ways or that anyone can know such treachery

to lose the sense of one place as the center 

holding answers for all the world

or that one language can best capture thought

so all others should wrap their tongues around right words

to lose the belief that one religion outranks others

that other beliefs are strange, misguided, unenlightened

or that one culture reigns supreme, the final answer

with keys to unlock all mysteries

if you want to travel well 

you must be prepared to gain things

to gain certitude of best as cumulative

that right energy can be forged collaboratively

to gain ardor that our world is vast and central

and needs protection so answers can be discovered in alliance

that each language builds in a unique world view

not to be neglected even if we choose a common language

to gain the belief that religion's role is to point toward the holy

and that we're all holy within a holy world superceding dogma

that each culture takes its place in the scheme of things as one piece

of the whole which together can shed light on all mysteries

to travel well one must be prepared to be ambushed

by the beauty that awaits day after day

to grow tender toward the children of each place

as they play and meet strangers and live in sometimes unimaginable 

circumstances and call it home yet stay open to travelers

ready to lose separateness and gain oneness and be our teachers in this 

it takes a fearlessness, this traveling, an open heartedness

that stands ready to call sister, to call brother, to say yes.


In response to Poetics: Travel Poetry prompt by Gabriella at dVerse Poets Pub although I missed the deadline and for Grapeling's Get Listed- September with words from "The Art of War" over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads. I used capture, neglected, ardor, energy, alliance, treachery and scheme.