The Never Ending Journey Poem by Steve Hagget

In cloudless sky and shadeless plain,
In dusty waste and yellow sea –
Where burning heat untempered reigns;
Where wilderness itself runs free.

Though mocking sun and hardened land
Would fight within their fist to hide;
The beauty that, though seldom seen,
Still safely lives and breathes inside.

For empty land, close to its breast,
A teeming field conceals
Which undeterred by desert scorn
A varied scene of life reveals.

On serene wing, with untold strength,
The mighty watchmen rise and soar.
With piercing presence, they control
While dunes of life beneath them pour.

And while they glide on heights above
Myriad tales unfold below –
Where soft-felt steps and hurrying breath
Betray the quest to live and grow.

Borne deep within the sandy bed,
The earth-bound slave in basking day,
With swift assurance breaks its rest
To seize its unsuspecting prey.

With anxious stare and quivering tail,
The scuttling kill holds many a place;
But numbers scarce conceal its state
Or can protect its fragile space.

But flowing through the rolling sand
High-leaping beasts unfettered stray,
And only imprints left behind
Can give the timid game away.

And while the scene progresses on
A calmer picture stands fast by:
Where pink and blue; where green and gold
In swaying carpet silent lie.

For this dead place yet deals in life;
Calling forth a richer story –
The tapestry that makes it thrive
Is the never ending journey.