The Discovery

William Orpen

The Discovery 

do not imagine that the exploration

ends, that she has yielded all her mystery

or that the map you hold

cancels further discovery

I tell you her uncovering takes years,

takes centuries, and when you find her naked

look again, 

admit there is something else you cannot name,

a veil, a coating just above the flesh

which you cannot remove by your mere wish

when you see the land naked, look again

(burn your maps, that is not what I mean),

I mean the moment when it seems most plain

is the moment when you must begin again.

        Gwendolyn MacEwan      

This poem enheartens me (is that a word?), No, I am not just what you see with the eye, or what I do, or even what I've lived, there are hidden things, mysteries, I have places to go and I will continue to change and adapt and grow, and new facets will shine out. An individual is not summed up or "known" so easily. And there is always that spark, that eternal part, which has yet to come into its own.