“If once you have slept on an island, you’ll never be quite the same.” I have remembered that line and this poem since junior high school. As an adolescent, it fired my imagination. I wanted to sleep on an island!
If Once You Have Slept On An Island
If once you have slept on an island
You'll never be quite the same;
You may look as you looked the day before
And go by the same old name,
You may bustle about in street and shop
You may sit at home and sew,
But you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls
Wherever your feet may go.
You may chat with the neighbors of this and that
And close to your fire keep,
But you'll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell
And tides beat through your sleep.
Oh! you won't know why and you can't say how
Such a change upon you came,
But once you have slept on an island,
You'll never be quite the same.Rachel Lyman Field
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-once-you-have-slept-on-an-island/
The idea of traveling to an island by boat, of going ashore and camping there filled my dreams and sent me on a personal quest that I’m still on today. Although today, my camping locations no longer have to be islands. They just need to be wild, remote locations that can be reached only (or at least best) by kayak.
