Dear Don Alberto
Flamboyant Octogenarian
To a pair of weather-beaten families on the Camino
And to Backpacker Bridget from Granada via Barnsley
And to all who seek shelter from the Galician downpours
You sound
Like an Angel
As you hold aloft your otherworldly radio
And play for us Tina Turner’s
Simply the Best
On happy repeat.

Dear Don Alberto
With your doggy entourage
To a bunch of Ryanair Refugees on the Camino
And to uber cool Bridget naturalised Granadina don’t mention Barnsley
And to all who seek sanctuary from the Galician heatwaves  
You taste
Like a rustic slice of empanada
Rich deep and
Eternally replenishing itself.

You weren’t ever on our map
Don Alberto, were you?
The ID cards you offer up for inspection
Make us laugh at the farce of our controls and borders.

And so
To us make-shift pilgrims on the Camino
You show us how to journey properly
Dancing the salsa
On every roundabout.


Simon Piesse

i walked across Spain

800km

and i thought that would do it.

apparently, it wasn't far enough...

May the road rise up to meet you
As you travel on THE WAY
May the music in your heart
Untangle the worries of your day

May old dreams be tossed
Upon that pyre of strife
And personal manifestos of peace
Ascend to take on life

And when the night closes in
Anxiety and bliss compete
Remember growth is hard my friend
Some truths come incomplete

In the meantime:

May you step easy o’er the rocks
That appear on The Way to defy
Keep in mind your destination
To reach that far-rimmed sky

On Friday mornings
You can find me 
At my local coffee shop
Reading, writing, understanding
Myself.
It is how I unpack
All the baggage from
This week's long journey
Along the Camino of life. 

It is the dusty old bunk bed 
I rest my body upon. 
It is where I am free 
To dream and dream again.
Here I understand my limits
And regain my strength.
Although I love the scenic overlooks
And the one I travel with,
I need this time.

I don't quite understand why,
But without this 
Momentary solitude,
Everything I've ever wanted
Does not feel
Quite like
Everything I've ever wanted.

It seems so far from here and now,
Both in distance and in kind.
That place I found, through winding ways;
The time when I cared not for time.

When shadows stretched meant day was new
And as they shortened haste was made.
Butterflies played and danced and flew,
Distracting minds in need of shade.

Pain in toes and knees and hips
Dissolved all ailments of the head.
Stories poured from sun kissed lips.
Easing aches in time for bed.

I wandered back to times gone by
To grief, to love; so bittersweet.
I played them out, I laughed, I cried-
To the echoed fall of dusty feet.

In all the things I've so far learned,
Of all the 'me' I've yet to know
I've found that peace and calm is earned
Through open minds, on unknown roads.

And if the names, the talks, the places;
If they try to fade with time
I'll think of all the smiling faces;
Kindest hearts, now kept in mine.

I’ve passed a little more than time
While I wore my feet to naught
A hundred lives have been and gone
For what I’ve seen as sport

We trace the steps of ages spent
When men were more than fiction
Simple lives and simpler minds
And faith their true addiction

I’m in a place where stories take
The power of the cross
And though the spires may steal my breath
I never felt the loss

For on The Way I took as mine
A shell and wooden limb
And parts of people, gifts so rich
Made my treasures small and slim

I’ve shared myself with men I’ve made
But will never know from there
I don’t feel sad because I knew
It’s not the whom but where

I’ll never find another day that feels the same as this
The time I’ve spent with just the steps; a special kind of bliss
When all there is to fill your head, the rhythm of the road
Your wishes and your broken corpse make light your mind and load

And now I will be much the same
In the before, the now and then
But there’s a trail within my eyes
That leads me back again

Each sunset and each moon reborn
Is on its own Camino
And every way will one day take
Me back to Santiago