The More You Travel, The More The World Gets Bigger
petrified forest of the sea
go figure, the more you travel
the more the world gets bigger
its the trig-trig-trigger of the next trip
e-even bigger
for the more you move, and the more you see
the more the world becomes, not smaller
but wider longer deeper taller
...
for there is so much to enjoy
for every girl and boy
yes joy to be had for
joy to be glad for
so much whirl and joy
for every girl and boy
...
as
when the next, breaks the context,
the detail will derail
and for you, the zagzigger,
the digger with vigour
the not-known next is now
richer
and reachable
as, for each blank page in the world,
sketchily filled in,
five more are unfurled
its the trig-trigger of the next trip,
e-even bigger
...
and so
in the strive
to be alive
to get yourself somewhere new
where you
are suddenly unused to
being unused to
and to have to get used to
being unused to
and this too
keeps the mind athrive
...
[can i invent the clumsy word
“athrive”
maybe...]
...
for over every border
the world gets deeper
broader,
so i’d rather
the farther
when the smooth of the
move
and the tough of the
rough
are more than
enough
to put you
in the
new
...
cos i
gotta be somewhere
and why not there?
because ahh yes
ah bless
there is so so much joy and whirl
for ev-every boy and girl
joy to be had for
joy to be glad for
so much joy and whirl
for ev-every boy and girl
...
its the trig-trig-trigger of the next trip,
that the next, breaks the context,
as, for each open page in the world,
sketchily filled in, more are unfurled
for the more you travel
the more the world gets
wider deeper
bigger
its the trig-trig-trigger of the next trip
e-even bigger
...
...
...
…
...
and hi
from my sudden repose
after varying kind of hairiness
on savage shore
and in thick jungle
because out there
at low tide
on the South-East of this island
Shaheed Dweep
it is the weirdest harshest landscape
is a moon of lichen
is a petrified coral bed
is a peek into unknown crevices maybe only two decades old
is stark and elemental
because
next the beachless sea
its fifty a hundred metres of smoothed lumpy rock
a sand and green algae colour
with pools
with three kinds of sea slugs
and brittle stars
and goldfish type fish
and feisty crabs waving their claws at you like they
want a punch up
with living coral of gold and purple and yellow
and one like blue heather
yet inside that outer seaside ring of smoothed
its fifty a hundred metres of greyed dead coral
pointed, bladed, serrated, coarse
where if you fell over you would cut yourself a hundred times
and another hundred getting up
so i really had to take my time choosing where to cross it
while this whole landscape must be unusual
over the aeons there must have been many places like this on earth
yet maybe not always
for this is the creation of the earthquake that caused the
Great Tsunami
which uplifted this island by
ONE TO TWO METRES
exposing the coral
which slowly died
withered
greyed
and so here we are
in all its harsh monochrome petrification
though the sandy green stretches make me wonder if
this is what the planet looked like three billion years ago
when algae and lichen ruled the Earth
while in the outer layer
nearer the sea
there are crevices and underwater passages
angled, thin, uneven
some maybe six feet deep
which are probably young
twenty years old
caused by the one sudden shock
and colossal subductive upwrenching
while this whole walk
which i just got back from
was caused by the fact i forgot my goggles
and when i got to Sitapur Beach i thought
well i can’t go swimming and looking for fishies and coral
so i might as well see what happens when i go right
and that is what happened
the lush green jungle path brought me out to the coast
its outer-ring of smooth lichened sandy rock
and then, further round, to where the inner-ring of harsh begins
so it was a
slow
precarious
ninety minutes
in unwise flipflops
marvelling in the colours
the fierceness
the clear crevices
the cactus-like coral
the seaweed like peas
which explode white in the sun [?]
are sea grapes or sea caviar
and it turns out i could have eaten them
while i could maybe have sat down
to read The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck Up
which is of course the only English book
on the shelves of my current abode, The Garden View
yet sitting down anywhere would hurt
and might get bloody
and anyway
its a self-help book
even though its pretending not to be
and i can’t be bothered with self-help books
particularly when i am in this unique
and fascinating
and colourful
and stark
weirdscape
and particularly when i feel pushed out to the waterside
by the scrapey gratey slicey slitty petrified coral i
still
somehow
have to get across
which makes me again
relish
and savour
and enjoy
and revel in
and soak in
the singular weirdworld i find myself in
so i pick my way back to the sea
while stepping over
round
into
the water
until i decide that the places where the
mangroves jut out from the jungle
will be easiest to cross
are shortest
and with mini-valleys of relative smoothness
so i do, and i’m right
it ain’t so hard
except
the mangroves are impenetrable
have huge grasses serrated by thorns
so i struggle along the jungle-front
fail on a first break into the thickness
and so, on the second
i just keep going
over, under, round
sweeping, swiping
stepping, treading, kicking
caught in lianas, grabbed at by vines
freeing naked feet from thick grasses
and battling into some kind of forgotten banana grove
simultaneously wondering and
not thinking about
What Lives In Here?
and
What Made Those Holes In The Ground?
so calling
and clapping my hands
to warn any cobras, or whatever
till i come out
before a large square well
or tank
and a pile of rubble
and see a guy in a dhoti in the distance
and realise
hey
i’m out, again
and i’m fine, again
while it turns out i’m near the Garden View
so ten minutes later i’m delaying my much-needed shower
because i’ve been given two mangoes
where Indian mangoes are the BESTEST
are peaches from Heaven
and well, there’s no point in me having a
shower and then
eating a mango
because mangoes get messy
and after i eat a ripe mango
i’ll need a shower
after all of which i
get under the mosquito net
the liberating mosquito net
and write this
