Saturday, January 1, 2011

Mapless Frontier


Atsena Otie Trail
New Year's Eve 2o10

This is not
any map you know.
Forget longitude.
Forget latitude.
Do not think
of distances
or of plotting
the most direct route.
Astrolabe, sextant, compass:
these will not help you here.

~ Jan Richardson, "Where the Map Begins"
Read the entire poem and see the artwork here.

It's been 28 months since I had any sense of recognizing the map.   It seems to me that this year, with Frontier as the word, is well begun with the first stanza of this poem.  A frontier may not be synonymous with a wilderness, but it does not seem to be mapped with any more clarity.

Atsena Otie is a very small island off Cedar Key.

2 comments:

  1. poignant poem for a frontier woman. I love that there is a star to watch in the dark night.

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  2. I read that on her blog...which, along with her artwork, I love. Good poem for you and your exploration of frontier.

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