LOST

Once,
it was known where one literally stood
in relation to sun and stars
the latitudes and directions.
We were able to find the way home
via hilltops, shadows, streams;
the intuitive sense inside that says
“A little bit more to the left”;
that knows the way
to find water in the desert
(beside following the camels!).
One knew how not to get lost
in the forest
Nor in the jungle of urban sprawl.
Aware that the rational, robot brain
- one linear foot ahead of the other -
always leads in vicious circles
round and round endlessly.

The blend of instinct
with learned geographic
information and knowledge
recognises landmarks,
and notable features
along with muscle memory;
completing our primordial migrational antennae, circadian senses
and inbuilt compass points.

These become atrophied in modern man
blunted by the ascendancy
of maps, hearsay, road signs.
Loss of body-speke
in favour of controlling, fear-based attitudes
with dependence on external tools
that replace the innate faculties.
Now, exacerbated by sat nav
and minute by minute mobile access,
so any vestigial nous is further dumbed.

The children must not dare, explore.
It’s not safe to wander free.
They need to be tracked and monitored
made reliant on and conditioned by outside instructions;
to grow soggy and effete
not listened to;
disconnected from source,
the Directions and the Ground.
Little surprise they get depressed;
Little surprise the survivor young
rise up and protest en masse
against they-know-not-what
- beside what they know and see.

There is a leading ear in every head
that, when cocked and alert
discerns subliminal indicators:
birdsong, wind direction, water-running;
footsteps, echoes, presence,
shadows and undue silences.

In every belly there is a Buddhic core
that deeply, truly knows,
not just where it needs to be
in any given moment or location
but where it wants to go.
(long as felt,
not overruled by the cocky head).

There is also an inner eye,
(deemed a biological anomaly
by science
- some useless, archaic relic)
that surely perceives
without orientation in space and time
the purpose and poise of the big picture
the joy to fully be,
autonomously trending
achingly present.