Poem: There Are Many Paths from Here

There Are Many Paths from Here

Some are quite nice,
many are splendid:
cool breezes smelling sweet
with subtle tones
of all those flowers (rose, lavender,
dandelion, lilac)
passed along the way to you,
if you are along those paths,
but others exist, too,
not so nice, not easy,
steep, cruel paths
with nothing to see,
with heat and unkind damp.
Any destination
might be reached along either kind,
and their may be many
that end in the same clearing,
though some must go other ways,
and it is not possible to know the end
just from the condition,
from the arduous nature of the journey required.
No, you cannot pick a path
to get to any specific place,
must follow one to discover where it leads,
and you cannot know even the journey ahead,
if what kind of path you have chosen,
but, of course, you cannot stay here.

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