‘The journey itself home.’ Basho, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” (Barnhill trans.)
Summer grass smells sweet
underfoot, quiets the foot
fall, slows the pace, de-
fines the soft shoulder.
Cars speed by me, nostalgic:
home is what drives us.
Home is relative.
Basho used a walking stick
on his last journeys.
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Author: Tom D'Evelyn
Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites.
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