~ Avenues ~

         Here, there, everywhere--  
         In, out, over, and through--  
                   The Nile's been mapped,  
                   The ocean depths plumbed,  
                   And the mountain peeks touched.

Where is the place where a foot has not stood?  
Where is the air that has not been breathed?  
Where is a climate that has not been felt?  
Where on the earth has an adventurer to go?

Phones and planes, helicopters and hospitals;
Safety gear galore, and tethers all the more.  
Risk has departed and danger smothered.  
With ropes and guides, handbooks and bug repellent,  
What can now be truly called,  
       be honestly said,  
              be objectively proffered as an adventure?  
 

Is not an adventure a dangerous risk?  
Can one actually have one without risk to life?  
Without fear of no return, without commitment to task?  
 

                                     by  M.G. Maness, 1982

~ Click Here to e-mail me at:  MG@PreciousHeart.net ~