My life isn’t a grand orchestrated adventure
with a fixed end
where my role is
to follow a line marked for me

It’s a step at a time
in the darkness
with a pinprick light to see
and my role is
to listen and feel along the way
to those before beside and becoming

About This Poem

I was shocked to discover a few days ago that this poem wasn't posted on my website. It's one of my favorites that I've ever written, and a couple of lines from it have inspired other lines in other poems... but apparently I've only ever posted it on social media as an "in progress" poem.

I love the brevity and clarity of this poem, but I love even more how the lost meter and lack of punctuation makes it feel disorienting, a reinforcement for the theme of wandering one step at a time. The second stanza concludes by pointing out that we are not alone – we exist alongside a community of wanderers, all taking a step at a time, and the best we can do is journey together.