Thirteen thousand strides progress
Blind leathern tread with gritted teeth
Stride hard rough bracken heather strive
Incipient thought embrace the scarp
Bent shoulder strain web strap entrench
Sharp body lean oppose the wind
Slow pitch forward cold lash rain
Pause..Shrug pack .. Lurch on again

Rough rock scrape pass
Sharp edge hand scrape
Each tread ascend dull lactic ache
Stone eyes cast up
Embrace dark peak
Surge on .. Dig in..
Embrace the pain
Aggressive stance.. find strength begin
Engage the enemy entrenched within
With comrades in adversity

Side glance reveal
Grey brother tight
Mordant ploughshare gleaming bright
United thought strong purpose right
Grim grimace glower grinding on
Helping hand support and share
Exchang-ed glances sing the pain
Relentless climb advance distain
Strong ******* stride bogged into mire
Grappling cragfast handclasp dire  
Entropic  spirit brief despair
Revelatory cause unswayed
Each cloistered personal crusade
Burst upwards into sunlight flame

And stand with vision intertwined
Each grim companion lasting friend
Eyes meet brief recognition shout
We know what it’s all about

These clasping minds
Empath embrace
Profound cognitive self aware
To follow where few others dare
These comrades in adversity

The first few steps
Faltering and low
Increase to many
First to South and then to West
Cross the mountain stream and trail
Road and track and gritted path
Alone the tread far measured pace
Onwards relentless
Walk each one another says....
Think of the others
Ten million strong
Who walked this path
Who thought your thoughts
Trod your steps
Believed your mind
Bled your blood
Shed your tears...

Where am I now
Where is that life
That passed before
My trail worn eyes
The thoughts of home
The warm glow of
A land where all
My troubles lay
Far distant shore
Land where my birth
Passed unseen moment
Long and twisted
Trail to a nexus far
From any sight that knew me
Striding onwards
Twisted thought
I am travelling
But not moving
Through the dust and
Inset memory

I am a pilgrim
With my tread
I make that mark
Where others follow
Thinking thoughts of home and fields
Eyes bright tears
Lip a quiver
Where am I now
Upon those fields
Sat in that land
Of once I dreamed
Sat in that land
And not content
To walk the fields and smell the earth
My feet stride forth
My thoughts reach out
I am not here
Where am I
I am not here
I walk the Camino still