Sample Initial Drafts

BLIND STEPS Till the destination the traveler can go north or west or all the others a destination can be set discarded and chosen anew Till the destination a path is taken but it can be only taken Till the destination it cannot be understood And since no other path was but imagined no other can truly be judged more right Till the destination these steps these turns these stops can only be best guessed and still are they the best that can be done Till the destination the destination remains in fog and the continuing so often hard for till the destination so many of these are steps but blindly taken —

BUT AGAIN I WILL To the darkness and the cold I am returned alone to my mistakes and it continues and is over and again a return to doing wrong the way easily do I know not the way straight do I know not and it continues and is over and again a return to what I thought to avoid yet again do I try yet again do I stumble yet again do I fall In the darkness and the cold alone in my mistakes when again will I try and again shall I fall for it continues and is over and again for a way easily do I know not and a way straight do I know not but again I will try —

WAVES Waves crash down waves of intensity beyond what seems bearable Feelings and fears Efforts and tasks People and strangers It is too much it darkens I shake and through all this I crawl through for now and wonder what is left Days pass I look back and see what has been passed through and wonder how The night passes the next day comes I peer out to see what will come now what must be endured what will I endure what waves are next —

THE MOUNTAIN CHOOSES In the beginning I saw the end and the path to take me there I saw my mountain ahead and the me that would make the climb Now I'm here on this mountain and I'm climbing and slipping and climbing again It's a different one a different climb not the one expected not the one I thought I'd chosen I accept it plant my feet in this the only now that is yet the further in I settle the further slips away the one I chose Moving on I remember the beginning and the path that was to be I see choices made and the life that in fact has been What of my life is even my own what of the choosing has been mine to make Is it I that set where I set out to be Is it I that chooses my mountain or is it my mountain that chooses me —