Three Haiku

Fuenterroble
Mist all day
Middle of the Way

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Lost in the darkness
Suddenly
The moon's my lamp light

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I come and I go
Where am I?
Outside looking in

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Fuenterroble de Salvatierra is home to the priest, Don Blas, who has done so much to promote the Camino. He's a priest of five parishes. Last Thursday I stayed a night in his Casa Parroquial. I was the only pilgrim. The village of Fuenterroble lies almost middle distance between Seville and Santiago on the Vía de la Plata. The last line is also meant to suggest Buddhism's Middle Way.

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On the way to Cañaveral just over a week ago, I walked the last few kilometres after the sun had set. But I did not need my head torch. I walked on a high path, through vast, empty spaces, by the light of a full moon.

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Entering Salamanca yesterday, after the isolation of the countryside with only cattle and sheep for company, it was a shock to find streets full of well-dressed people, women in furs and scarves, girls in fashionable jeans and boots. They were walking the evening paseo, keeping to the right like traffic on the carretera. This haiku reflects the sense of alienation I felt as a ragged pilgrim just passing through.

(Posted from Salamanca, on the Vía de la Plata, Spain.)