The papers roll out in large spools of art,

Covered in seas never sailed, and roads rarely ridden.

The crinkle of parchment and the yellowing lines

Add to the intrigue of maps from the past,

With so many errors and sea monsters drawn

To scare away travelers scared of the flat,

Worried they’ll sail right off the edge.

I follow those pathways with fingers untold,

The trails and the tracks that criss-cross the land

And taunt us in ways we hope to undo,

One day we’ll travel down each of those lanes,

Cross all those oceans and see foreign lands.

One last peruse of the beautiful art

And it’s rolled up and hidden, a secret

For someone to discover in years yet to come.

I really love maps and globes, and I couldn’t tell you where that love comes from. It’s not even like I know how to read the things. I literally could not live without my satnav if I’m not to get horribly lost.

But there is just something so magical about a map, and the older the better. The ones that are so old that they have funny creatures drawn in the oceans are my favourite. And the ones that are obviously really inaccurate because the cartographer had no pictures from above to rely on – they’re pretty cool too.

I think that a lot of the time, I like to imagine all the places that I could visit. I’m not particularly well traveled, so I enjoy the dreaming. What would it be like to take a boat ride down the Venetian canals? What would it be like to trek to Machu Picchu?

The people who actually draw these things are the real artists of this world. They are just beautiful to look at and I admire every little detail that is put into the work. I wish that we still had a use for them, but I guess Google Maps is fairly pretty – right?

Much Love

Rachel xx