Geography for Poets

"Poets make the best topographers" (W.G.Hoskins, 1955: The Making of the English Landscape)

In his collection of short stories "Winesburg, Ohio" (1922), Sherwood Anderson describes one particular story as: "...worth a book in itself. Sympathetically set forth it would tap many strange, beautiful qualities in obscure men. It is a job for a poet." 

The same is true of Geography. It is a job for a poet, and done well it can help us to discover interesting and important things within ourselves, as well as in our world. 

Everything in this world is connected to everything else: that's where the poetry comes from; just as the science does...

The trees starry with goodwill
The musical notation of another world
The ancient belief that there always exists
The very close yet still unseen

From "The Axion Esti" by Odysseus Elytis

They have spoken to me of Venezuelas,
of Chiles and Paraguays; 
I have no idea what they are saying. 
I know only the skin of the earth 
and I know it has no name.

From "Too many names" by Pablo Neruda

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

From "Little Gidding" by T.S.Eliot