HOW LONG THE JOURNEY
I dedicate this poem to my friend, Jennifer Smith, someone who has been more than simply good to me. Jennifer, your affirmations inspire me to write. And write and write and write... Thank you!
A mantle of mist cloaks the ground, haunts my steps along a winding, wending road. Though the road I walk has long since lost its way, I watch my thoughts find themselves in the curves and the hollows of this vale of mysteries, where my heart once followed another road. How far have I come? How long since the journey began, when clouds knew answers to unasked questions, trusting only in the wisdom of stars? This journey I have long travelled completes itself in the place it began, where mist of remembering, where cloud of forgetting, interlace their wisps in an ancient dance. And at last, I am certain that my road will find its way home, for that home I thought lay always around the next bend has always been the very next step before me.
This is beautiful, Kelly.
I was immediately drawn to the mist, the winding road, the “vale of mysteries,” and that haunting interplay between remembering and forgetting. There is something deeply moving in the idea that we spend so much of life searching for a destination, only to discover that perhaps the journey itself has been quietly bringing us home all along.
Your final thought stayed with me especially—the home we imagine waiting somewhere beyond the next bend may, in fact, have always been “the very next step before me.”
I’m happily subscribing because I love atmospheric writing that uses landscape not merely as scenery, but as a reflection of our inner journeys. Your poem does that beautifully.
I write atmospheric stories myself, including a series of mysteries set in the mountains, where mist, memory, and the secrets held by landscapes play an important part. If curiosity ever leads you to The Reflective State, perhaps you might enjoy The Cobbler of Kussowile or The Last Train to Darjeeling. I’d be delighted to know what you think.
Very happy to have discovered your writing, Kelly.
'My road will find its way home' such a beautiful line.. 💖