This week’s Poetry Friday reading started off as a love letter written some years ago. KNAU listener Steve Law, of Page, wrote it on the Colorado River where he was working as a guide. He was trying to explain to a former girlfriend why he kept leaving home in search of adventure. Steve is now the editor of the Lake Powell Chronicle, but his wanderlust has not subsided…something many of us can relate to. Here he is reading his original poem, ‘Gone’.
Gone, by Steven Law
I want to find myself an outbound ship
At the very beginning of a very long trip
I want to hear the riddle from the Sphinx’s lips
And decipher panels in Aztec crypts
That, baby, that is why I’m gone
I want to pursue life’s elusive insights
While I dogsledding beneath the northern lights
I want to sit at the pilgrim’s fire
I want to sing in the nomad’s choir
That, baby, that is why I’m gone
I want to ride a wild horse across Mongolian plains
I want to pitch my tent under African rains
I want to drown in a whirlpool of wonder
I want a riptide of awe to pull me under
That, baby, that is why I’m gone
I want to explore the corners of the Amazon
I want to see what’s beyond the Great Beyond
I want curiosity to be my guide
`Cause the horizon pulls at me like the moon pulls at the tide
Wait just a little longer, I’ll be home soon
Just one more phase of the Traveler’s Moon
I have a pen, a notebook and some worn-out shoes
A backpack, a blanket and a picture of you
And I’ve learned 20 ways to say goodbye
And a hundred ways my love proclaim
And you’ve learned 20 ways to ask me why
But the answer is always the same
Forty days in the desert is what I’m needin’
I want to walk those sandy trails till my tired feet are bleedin’
And I want to wander the Yukon’s empty trails
And I want to ride India’s restless rails
That, baby, that is why I’m gone
I want to find a forgotten city using antique maps
And outsmart its ancient booby-traps
I want to hear nature’s delicate voices
But they’re drowned out by the city’s noises
That, baby, that is why I’m gone
I want to migrate with the whales
When the Zephyr fills my sails.
I want to attempt the deeper contemplations
Under those beautiful Grand Canyon constellations
That, baby, that is why I’m gone
I want to break bread with the prodigal sons
I want to taste life with a poet’s tongue
I stayed put for a while, it didn’t take, but I sure tried
`Cause the horizon pulls at me like the moon pulls at the tide
Wait just a little longer, I’ll be home soon
Just one more phase of the Traveler’s Moon
I have a pen, a notebook and some worn-out shoes
A backpack, a blanket and a picture of you
And I’ve learned 20 ways to say goodbye
And a hundred ways my love proclaim
And you’ve learned 20 ways to ask me why
But the answer is always the same
Wait, baby wait, just a little longer for me
The wandering river always returns to the sea
Another campsite – and packing up at dawn
The needle settles north and now I’m gone
Poetry Friday is produced by KNAU's Gillian Ferris. If you have an idea for a segment, email her at gillian.ferris@nau.edu.
