In the great night, my heart will go out.  
                                                            –Papago  

Boundless blue, blue of longing   
(says Rebecca Solnit),
blue of distance, where you are not,    
where you think you can never go—       

        You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley—  

Shrink, solemnly, into yourself   
(says Virginia Woolf),
into that wedge-shaped core of darkness
no one sees.  Expand
into those limitless depths.      

        You’ve got to walk it for yourself—  

To be in relation to everything
around us, above us, below us   
(says Terry Tempest Williams)
is to see earth, sky, bones, blood
whole, even holy.       

        Nobody else can do it for you—  

If we were as capable of trust
as we are susceptible to fear   
(says Edward Abbey),
we might learn something new
or some truth so very old
we have all forgotten it.    
   
        You’ve got to walk it for yourself.