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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
Copyright ©
Geoffrey Brewer
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