They tell me the life-long journey is done.
Apparently, there’s been a change of course.
The argument goes “that old race is run…
that over-trodden track has lost its force.”
Seems to me, it’s the traveller’s gone astray.
It’s not the map that has thrown its compass
to the four winds; and so, must find its way.
It’s the runner; stuck in a deep crevasse:
he’s become the point of question, the cause
to pause, to hesitate, to contemplate:
‘position and condition’ on foreign shores;
he threw aside the guide and tested fate.
. Old maps are not for the lost to squander,
. they offer much for the lost to ponder.

© Tim Grace, 3 June 2012

To the reader: Throughout life we adapt to changing circumstances. Those who stop adapting are least likely to survive the ravages of time. Thus, the life-long journey is a continuous construction of self; one that represents our environmental relationships. The key to survival is adaptation. Our adaptive capacities (knowledge, skills and understandings) are transmitted through interaction with others. There is no end to this journey, forever mapped to a lust for learning.

To the poet: As a counter-argument this sonnet doesn’t quite reach the status of polemic. It does however mount a good case for life-long learning as mapped to a solid premise. The poetical challenge was to intersperse some geographical terrain into the text; the geographical context. The final handwritten version (3 June 2012) of this poem struggled to find its way; a digital rescue (2 February 2015) was applied a year or two down the track.

life long journey