Mapped Out
@NormanDarlo (1071)
Ireland
November 10, 2018 8:28am CST
MAPPED OUT
My relationship with maps
has been intense
and even physical
Via cartography
I occupy a landscape,
my knight errant free
to ghost across the heath
Thanks to the warriors
of the OSI I
inhabit crustal motion
populate the mysteries of geodesy
and sundry earth sciences
You'd think
I might have been
the lad
for orienteering,
scrambling through brambles
one eye on the compass
hell for leather for that double circle
But my youthful eye was drawn
to the distraction of fixed stars
and gyroscopes,
the weight of the plumbline
…dangling
Even now that eye
untired from years of staring out
horizon's empty promise
maintains its dogged dream
of some final
ultimate
meridian convergence
*(OSI: Ordinance Survey of Ireland)
First appeared in Crannóg Issue 22, 2009
Image by Marcin Mikita, released under GNU Free Documentation License
6 people like this
6 responses
@Courage7 (19633)
• United States
14 Nov 18
@NormanDarlo Ah sure thanks for making my day..I mean night haha
He was not at all happy.@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
13 Nov 18
I bet he wasn't! Many years ago when my kids were young, after spending a night with friends in Caen (Normandy), we set out very early for EuroDisney on the outskirts of Paris. Unfortunately, at a roundabout there were roadworks, and the signposts had been uprooted and hastily re-positioned, but incorrectly, as we would discover later. We drove for some 30 minutes towards Paris (we thought), until I noticed the sun rising in my rear-view mirror. Well, we turned around, but more mishaps followed, and we ended up arriving at our destination at lunchtime, instead of 8:00 as planned!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (472114)
• Switzerland
13 Nov 18
@NormanDarlo It happens, the US printed maps were "not to scale", I missed the only turn that on the map looked like a 45 angle turn, in reality it was not. I felt very bad. I noticed it was warmer and warmer. When we arrived at a small town I checked the sign and I realised we were in the California Desert.
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
11 Nov 18
A true poet and writer! 
A reliable map is so useful and appreciated by a traveller. 
A reliable map is so useful and appreciated by a traveller. 1 person likes this
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
13 Nov 18
Thanks so much, Hope! I could not imagine visiting a strange city without a map 
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
10 Nov 18
The maps we used in Ireland a few years ago were excellent - although we had to buy four because our hired cottage was in the corner of all of them!
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
13 Nov 18
You were very unfortunately positioned! I consider myself unlucky to be on the cusp of two of them That 1:50,000 series is excellent.
That 1:50,000 series is excellent.
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
13 Nov 18
I find the SatNav both extremely useful and extremely dangerous! When I was in Italy last year, although I had driven (with its aid) between town and our house half a dozen times, I was unable to find my way on foot 
Our brains wither when we rely on these things.
Our brains wither when we rely on these things.