It’s ten years since this poem was published in the Galway Advertiser and on the Galway Review website. It’s written in the form of ‘Ode to the Virginian Voyage’ by Michael Drayton (1563-1631).

Only you would venture
out in the woods today
to places he once knew
where you pursue
your adventure:
a novice, come to pray.

A compact edition
carried close to your heart,
forsaking a warm fire
(your heart’s desire),
today’s mission
might help you make a start.

Needing inspiration,
you carefully tread
with the aim of finding
some new blinding
revelation;
you get frostbite instead.

Don’t wrestle with the muse:
your turn will come around.
So go back to your fire
(your heart’s desire)
where you can choose
to wait on safer ground.