Dan Murphy
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- August 25, 2016
I completed my Camino (the French Way, August 28 – October 3) and here are a few short notes I would like to share …..
- A German man, who was 77 and on his seventh Camino, turned to me in a bar and said the Camion is a “Gift from God”, I believe this to be so.
- I had no blisters or physical problems. Wore Merrill Mohad GTX wide low cut walking shoes with Icebreaker liner socks and lite Phd Smart wool socks. No problems with sweating feet
- Used my sleeping bag twice preferring my silk as albergues were warm.
- Have no complaints about the albergues, never wore earplugs, and only pre booked on three occasions.
- Food was great including the pilgrim meals
- Loved the Meseta, a Gods gift to the inner soul
Meseta
You climb out of the darkness
As if you own the place;
Having certain dominion over it.
Soft and sultry you burn night’s tears off
As fire burns a sugarcane field or your light
Cuts the shadow from an eucalyptus tree.
On my back your first kisses.
Yellow tongues flickering
Along my spine like a razor edge.
Turn me around if you wish.
Entice me to see your medusa sun;
Your peek scorching the sleepy hills of stars.
Unforgettable as autumn leaves
Your orange sky in the morning.
A sailors warning I recall.
So I’ll pull in my sails then.
Hurry my gait to the meadow’s edge
And find safe hiding in your hair
Before you turn my dust to stone.
- Loved the mountains and the hills and the valleys and the steep climbs through the forests.
- Loved the churches and masses and lit candles for all those who were in need
- Loved being tired and hungry
- The first three weeks were brutal with temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees. We left a 5:30 am in the morning to beat the heat.
- Never sweated some much in my life nor drank so much water. I learned to love water and fresh orange juice in the morning.
- Never used my guide book and used Locus map (offline version) from time to time in the early mornings to check my route.
- The Camino provides and this is so true.
Cliff Hanging
(Cape Finisterra)
Tonight music has no moving parts.
Sun’s pendulum taunts its horizon;
Kissing the salted swell with a tongue’s delicacy.
A metallic sheen comes straight at us
Like God’s scolding finger; nails
Still soft oiled from foundries’ quench.
Like marram grass tufts we stick to this rock;
Medieval symbols crucified into its stone.
Spikes have driven themselves deep into our hearts.
Hooked by the thorns of a desert seed
We cannot breath until the sun dips.
Until she buries herself like an animal;
Warm and burning soft at our feet.
The poem I will write bubbles in hot lava.
Sulfur gas holds the words tight
As the ghosts I’ve never seen.
This is the nature of cliff hanging at sunset.
All of us perched like a birds on a hot wire.
The sea cracking below, day snuffed like a candle
And the night at our backs like a pack of wolves.
- A German man, who was 77 and on his seventh Camino, turned to me in a bar and said the Camion is a “Gift from God”, I believe this to be so.
- I had no blisters or physical problems. Wore Merrill Mohad GTX wide low cut walking shoes with Icebreaker liner socks and lite Phd Smart wool socks. No problems with sweating feet
- Used my sleeping bag twice preferring my silk as albergues were warm.
- Have no complaints about the albergues, never wore earplugs, and only pre booked on three occasions.
- Food was great including the pilgrim meals
- Loved the Meseta, a Gods gift to the inner soul
Meseta
You climb out of the darkness
As if you own the place;
Having certain dominion over it.
Soft and sultry you burn night’s tears off
As fire burns a sugarcane field or your light
Cuts the shadow from an eucalyptus tree.
On my back your first kisses.
Yellow tongues flickering
Along my spine like a razor edge.
Turn me around if you wish.
Entice me to see your medusa sun;
Your peek scorching the sleepy hills of stars.
Unforgettable as autumn leaves
Your orange sky in the morning.
A sailors warning I recall.
So I’ll pull in my sails then.
Hurry my gait to the meadow’s edge
And find safe hiding in your hair
Before you turn my dust to stone.
- Loved the mountains and the hills and the valleys and the steep climbs through the forests.
- Loved the churches and masses and lit candles for all those who were in need
- Loved being tired and hungry
- The first three weeks were brutal with temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees. We left a 5:30 am in the morning to beat the heat.
- Never sweated some much in my life nor drank so much water. I learned to love water and fresh orange juice in the morning.
- Never used my guide book and used Locus map (offline version) from time to time in the early mornings to check my route.
- The Camino provides and this is so true.
Cliff Hanging
(Cape Finisterra)
Tonight music has no moving parts.
Sun’s pendulum taunts its horizon;
Kissing the salted swell with a tongue’s delicacy.
A metallic sheen comes straight at us
Like God’s scolding finger; nails
Still soft oiled from foundries’ quench.
Like marram grass tufts we stick to this rock;
Medieval symbols crucified into its stone.
Spikes have driven themselves deep into our hearts.
Hooked by the thorns of a desert seed
We cannot breath until the sun dips.
Until she buries herself like an animal;
Warm and burning soft at our feet.
The poem I will write bubbles in hot lava.
Sulfur gas holds the words tight
As the ghosts I’ve never seen.
This is the nature of cliff hanging at sunset.
All of us perched like a birds on a hot wire.
The sea cracking below, day snuffed like a candle
And the night at our backs like a pack of wolves.
