Worries about weather were, as usual, in vain. Left Porto November 8th and arrived in Santiago on the 17th. 10 days of walking 3 partial days of rain and temperatures motley between 15 and 20C. Unlike the experience of the Magi as depicted by TS Eliot, this was a very good time of year for a journey, uncrowded, hospitable towns with helpful generous inhabitants.
Loved the Roman roads!
Here is my offering to the Way, along Ancient Roman Roads
Gerry Owen
The Way
On Ancient Roman Roads
Who placed this stone?
The nut brown one, I mean
All the rest are pink tinged granite
On this ancient Roman Via
North of Point de Lima
And just how many oak leaves
Wet and withered from a season’s work
Translating the constant sun into food
Then dying, just in time for the dormancy of winter
Have come to rest in this Ancient Way?
And just how many winters?
Since a boy (perhaps)
Learning the noble trade of road craft
Picked this singular brown stone to place amidst the pink granite
Laid in the high centre where no wagon
Or chariot wheel would wear it down
Are we like the paving stones?
Some placed in the path of the Chariot wheel
To be used up early, after maybe only a century or two
While others of us hide in the center
The unworn, mostly unused places of the Via
Of the Way?
For what shall I pray?
For the long unburdened life of the untrodden stone
Or the intense short and useful life
Of the stone that bears the weight and wear
Of the Master’s chariot?
Gerald Owen
November 2011