The Motivation for the Pilgrimage

This poem is by Pam Donohue, the chief organizer of the UK SoF conference until her sudden death on 3 May 1999. She will be much missed, but her poems remain as a light for all our paths


Give me in life one fierce desire.
One kite to follow over endless hills,
One sun to blaze my road which lies before
And leave bright shadows where I pass;
One joy to lie within
The tiny space of infinite size,
One thing to gather all the rest
Into cohesion, making noble sentence
Of the many words, one drama
Of the many scenes; one friend,
One loved one in the seeming crowd
One royal passion to outstay the rest.

There's no true choice of what that passion be,
For what it will appear is mere disguise
For Europe, language, song, astronomy,
The perfect photograph, blue poppies,
The nine symphonies of Bruckner,
Works of Shakespeare or elected silence
Show but enthusiasm the god inside
The manifest unmanifest shown forth
In every glowing hue of mankind's rainbow bonds.

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