closed path, open door

I’m ready to write this novel. I don’t leave for Senegal until July 1, but I’ve started the research process, reached out to some folks in Dakar, and I’ve had Nyla on the brain for the past few weeks. Watching the latest X-Men movie helped, even though women had only minor roles. All the more reason to get busy and write The Return! This poem will serve as the epigraph:

 

Closed Path

I thought that my voyage had come to its end
at the last limit of my power,—-that the path before me was closed,
that provisions were exhausted
and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.

But I find that thy will knows no end in me.
And when old words die out on the tongue,
new melodies break forth from the heart;
and where the old tracks are lost,
new country is revealed with its wonders.

© Rabindranath Tagore