How do you feel your way back

By Jane Arthur

I’m not ancient or intuitive so don’t tell me directions

using words like north and east, tell me street names,

landmarks, minutes, left and right. It’s quite sad and

I wish it weren’t so, but how do you feel your way back

to the stars, the pull of the poles, the wisdom within

your bones – and was there ever any? These days

everything’s mythical and pedestrian at once.

I’m no good at mobile-phone maps or natural gods

or crystals or bushwalks, I’m no good at any of it.

From here, I’m very happy to let your expertise take over –

please, go for your life, bless you.

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Jane Arthur is a poet and editor who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. She has a Master’s in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, Wellington, and won the 2018 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize, judged by US poet Eileen Myles.