In Which I'm Promised a Unique Encounter with Nature at the Edge of the Sea

poems about maps
Pacific Coast, Vancouver Island, photo by Joe Gollner
I love maps. Whole universes live in maps. And what's even better than studying a map? Writing a poem from it. The following poem is based on a map of Vancouver Island.
 
This one is dedicated to the Gollners, and to The Hedge.
 

In Which I'm Promised a Unique Encounter with Nature at the Edge of the Sea

 
Unfolding my Long Beach Maps (Free!)
Tofino & Ucluelet Vancouver
Island, BC Canada 2025
Guide to Everything You Need!
I’m exhorted to love
 
the Outside Inside – it’s the Pacific Rim
National Park Reserve trail path
rail watch route water and reminder
to recycle, as if this map is something
I’d ever give up.
 
You knew the truth when you took me there—
sourdough & butter, what would happen
around that rhino mug of chai.
I see here the mapmakers didn’t forget
the Incinerator, nor the pink lines
 
squiggling around it, the way those waves
would overtake me—where do you get off
dropping a poet into Schooner Cove
like nothing’s going to change?
The oat bars are the least of it.
 
Warning! says the map: the distances
may look short, but are impassable.
Now show your love for the West Coast—
stay off the rocks; there’s a lot still to learn.
If you see a bear, speak gently.