The Journey

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice—though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. ‘Mend my life!’ each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do…”

In the second issue of “In Pursuit of the Sublime,” a poetry project by The Land West of Long Mountain, we read Mary Oliver’s celebrated poem “The Journey” for the fierce beauty of its language and the profound power of its insight. Both wise and inspiring, but never coddling, “The Journey” is a poem that can help guide us all, both along the roads of the world and through the greater journey of life. The poem is presented alongside photography from Joseph’s own travels and journeys in Asia.

In Pursuit of the Sublime

In this first edition of “In Pursuit of the Sublime Poetry Project,” we journey with Kahlil Gibran’s seeker up the eternal holy mountain, four times through the course of three thousand years, in pursuit of God. Along our journey, we learn about the meaning of patience and perseverance and about the true relationship between life and Life’s Creator. In this way, we unearth both wisdom of the heart and fulfillment of the spirit, and we come to discover joy, to experience the divine and to behold the beauty of creation everywhere on earth.