Let’s do the hippy-hippy shake!
Cold mountain streams,
Mist in the morning,
The sea crashing on a thunderous shore,
Rain, and sun, and a dead turtle on the beach;
A mulberry tree, a well,
A fire, fresh fish -
Who could want more?
Out in the distance there’s always a horizon,
Always a new camp,
Always a future;
And a willing soul, trudging up stony paths,
Living life to the full.
Hey! I salute you!
But when the journey’s done,
Where do you return?
Exploration is its own illusion,
And the seas and the clouds offer no solution,
Only a partial redress of what was never a mistake,
Questioned confusion.
Sit in the pine forests,
Listen to the drums,
Have the eagle land beside you;
You’ll find no answers until your heart’s ready,
And your heart could have been ready at home.
But hey! Why worry!
This is your journey,
And may the ice-cream and smiles of your life light up all those around you.
This poem is about young people going off round the world to change themselves.
But you don’t need to go round the world to change yourself, and the trip’s usually spiritual stasis anyway, because genuine change only happens when your heart’s ready. And because there’s no ‘end’, how can you return to a starting point?
Still, there’s nothing wrong with asking questions and looking 
