Lightly
I hold all I need in the world in this bag:
My redbook, my notebook, three pens and a wallet,
One chequebook, two keys. Could I travel more lightly
Than this? And my loves, all my loves:
Too distant to mark the walk from here, to witness
The achievement. A singular trial that one choice taken,
A choosing unbidden, unasked. The haversack
Lightly wears my shoulder, correctly heavy
To nag of what one is, to where one goes, what
Comfort the burden can show correctly borne.
Even the scales they weighed me on, weigh nothing,
And they put them in, and lightly I carry them.
I know I will meet one just man on the road.
Give him my haversack packed with utensils,
With truth-gifts ringing - to test his worth
In words and cards, eyes and buying -
For there will be a weighing, a scrutinising
What he won and how he walked and in his turn
He will stand where I am; his loves, oh his loves,
All too distant to mark him make the choice from
A choosing unbidden, unasked. But a chosen one sees
His own unburdening and knows how the travelling is light.
And I have gathered my redbook, my notebook,
Three trees and a loch. I have one word, two keys -
Could I travel more lightly than these?
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