by Susan Ludvigson

It must be genetic, proof that the road
is not a series of signs to be deciphered
but a place the mind already knows.
We never can say how we got there,
but find ourselves back where we started,
hearts pizzicato at every missed turn
in a world designed to dissuade us ever
from leaving home.

Once in a country where I
knew neither landscape nor language,
a new friend lent me his car
and waved me off. I arrived
at a walled city, climbed through a maze
of golden streets and rested in a café.
Later, the missing purse—
passport, money, keys. The name
of my friend’s village gone like a dream
too many hours after waking. Breathless,

blinded by panic, I ran through that network
of narrow lanes, the cobblestones Braille.
At last—the café. The owner shook her finger,
railed, and handed me the bag I’d left,
everything intact. After that I wound my way
through dusk, through villages I had not passed
to the place I’d begun. I think

it’s a kind of grace—like geometry,
where right answers come through paths
we can never retrace—showing we’re blessed.
Lost, lost, we cry, but return
like pigeons whose routes are unerring, unearned

“Take Ten” – Paul Desmond

“Concrete And Clay” – Unit 4 + 2

“Nothing In This World Can Stop Me From Worryin’ Bout That Girl” – The Kinks

“A Summer Song” – Chad and Jeremy

“Blinuet” – Zoot Sims

“Here Comes My Baby” – Cat Stevens

“Jersey Thursday” – Donovan

“A Quick One, While He’s Away” – The Who

“I Am Waiting” – The Rolling Stones

“The Wind” – Cat Stevens

“Rue St. Vincent” - Yves Montand

“Oh Yoko!” – John Lennon

“Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” – Vince Guaraldi

“Manoir Des Mes Reves” – Django Reinhardt

“Ooh La La” – Faces

From: Duke University Libraries Ad*Access collection

From: Duke University Libraries Ad*Access collection