Jose Marte Abueg
Pathfinders
1. Compass Rose
Where to pass:
Toward the head
True north
Ineluctable constant
Perpetual key to finding
Other known paths
Or south
Point equally true
Sturdy and understated
A steadfast rudder
Or sideward
To the first light
The source rising
Radiating over edges
Or toward the wing
Diagonally across
To the last minute
Of luminosity
Or along any other
In the burst of rays
Apparently inspired
By an inexistent
Patterned sun
Or somewhere along
Some slanted line
Not illustrated
In the star-like rose
Somewhere outside
The geometry that seems
At first to signify
A delimited explosion
And then delineates
Merely fundamental choices
Around which to play
The imagination
Brightly pointing outwards
Of inner desires
2. Spirit Compass
In time this instrument
will collapse, its interior
corroded by its mixture,
plain water and alcohol,
and then finally shattered
by the slightest nudge.
No more the necessary, simple needle
so ever faithful to an eternal pull,
and the chosen invisible line
to one intended future.
The navigator left in the vastness
must as always be alert to the currents,
keep watch of the clouds, understand
the winds, and discern the paths of stars.
But where the depths, the horizon
and the heavens darkly become
unknowable, and in the dimness or
doubt or emptiness gathers the danger
of a storm or maelstrom or despair,
it might be good to turn elsewhere,
outside the ordinary ocean, to cross
to the interior and perhaps in the heart
of the solitude take quiet guidance
from an unseen, knowing hand.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
Top, Compass roses from Wikimedia Commons;
right, Cliffs from Remants of Old.Com
