Footpaths and Foresights

IN PRAISE OF FOOTPATHS Across the land a web of footpaths weave The veins that nourished nation’s interaction Cross chalk down ridge, and sylvan lane, conceived By feet of ancient Britons, Celt and Saxon A mirror web of thought now spreads world wide Where words not footsteps trace a myriad tracks Each traversed packet bears the key: decides It’s destination; choice already packed No need, in flesh, to bear our information Impart it face to face in person meeting While Porlock caller mayn’t break a poet’s gestation Nor may they both perceive delight in greeting When we go old ways we choose the place we’re heading We might also choose the path on which we are treading AND OF HISTORY Just as our paths through space trace footsteps past So tracks through time tell stories of our history Each step then taught a lesson that might cast A foresight to illumine future’s mystery There are those who say the past is another land Which can tell us naught to guide us through these days That all lives we lived before be laid ‘neath time’s sands We should now tear down the casts the past portrays Revolutions come and go, revered or morned Often countless lives were torn in violent spasm Seen in ruined buildings, streets with blood adorned And through it all, nihilistic iconoclasm So let us preserve our past to learn and measure Those tattered maps may lead to future treasure