Odyssey From Africa 14g 15a

Odyssey from Africa 14g “This research by young Alinda Tells us something most important For we find upon our beaches Plants that are entirely different “From the flora on our island Or from the adjacent mainland This can only have one meaning!” Said the king, with rising passion “That across the ocean vastness There are distant lands and coastlines And our world is so much larger Than the limits of our vision “What to us seem wide horizons Are a spot upon the surface Of a world immense and wondrous Filled with things beyond our knowledge! “Please keep up your great endeavours!” Said the monarch to Alinda Who by now was shyly blushing “For you truly are a scholar!” Han and Ptolemy departed Back outside into the gardens Where the king now spoke in earnest Spoke to Han his soul’s deep yearning Chapter 15 Southland “Now I’ll tell another mystery Of a secret burning passion Something seen in nighttime dreaming In a strangely lucid vision “First the seed of it was planted In the watching of the night sky In the charting of the seasons Of the stars and moon and planets “Their great canopy rotating With the turning of our planet Shining myriad beams of starlight From unfathomed time and distance “It was further fed and watered By the study of wild creatures By the annual migrations Of the birds and whales and fishes “They depart from our horizons Who can say how far they travel? As they search the earth for solace Round its vast and curving surface “And I glimpsed it on the beaches In the flotsam and the jetsam In the sun-bleached twigs and branches That have crossed the widest oceans “Then it came to me at nighttime In a jolting of the senses As I borrowed in my dreaming Of the eyesight of a seabird “And I soared above the ocean In a sunlight that was alien Then beheld a distant coastline Coming nearer, growing wider “Till I saw a land of wonder It was vast beyond describing Still I sensed it was an island In a boundless southern ocean “There were mighty broadleaf forests And a wilderness of red stone There were winding river valleys Grassy plains and stony scrubland “I saw not one single human In this wide and lonely landscape Not one sign of habitation Any traces of encampment “As the seabird of my vision Quietly glided and descended Nearer to an open grassland I beheld the strangest creatures Get Odyssey on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Africa-Adventures-Phil-Salmon-ebook/dp/B078WK1FRT