Poetry

Bill Artz shares his jaunty yet sincere ode to pilgrim feet.

A pilgrim spends a rainy day in a Santiago de Compostela laundromat staring into the spinning machines and contemplating the tumbling cycles in our world.

Amul Purohit’s self-described “attempt to put into words the quiet, enduring pull the Camino leaves on those who have walked it, long after the boots come off.” He draws on experiences accumulated over the past ten years on five separate journeys along various routes.

In this poem by Robert Bain, a pilgrim suffering an ankle injury must slow down and turn back. From this seeming setback, an enduring friendship is forged and a life lesson is learned.

Song lyrics by Robert Bain, set to the tune of the folk-rock song “Teach Your Children,” serve as an audio shadowbox for the gifts that accompanied him on his first Camino in 2018: a shell from friends, Euros to spend, a stone to leave at Cruz de Ferro, and a letter from his wife.

In these song lyrics set to the rap rhythm of “My Shot” from Broadway’s Hamilton, Evan Massaro playfully highlights quintessential details—blisters, snoring, café con leche, tortilla española, cows, sideways rain, and more—that are a shorthand language of the Camino experience, fostering an “if you know, you know” sense of solidarity among fellow pilgrims.

Poet Suzanne Doerge writes of a pilgrim who begins her journey walled-off, distrusting. Injured along the way, she believes her journey would end there, returning home a failure. And then to her surprise, she meets angels who help restore her trust in others and herself.

A toast offered by one pilgrim to his Camino companions at a farewell dinner in Santiago de Compostela.

When her marriage unravels, Katherine January steps out on Camino, tucking into her backpack a small bundle of nylon cord her ex-husband kept stashed around the house. As she walks, she considers the ways she might use that string to solve problems on Camino, just as she, no longer tethered, must now improvise a new life.

In this poem, Rebecca Ring writes about escaping on pilgrimage upon retirement from a career as an elementary classroom teacher, only to find herself surrounded by a group of Spanish students on a field trip day on Camino, and a connection she made in one brief exchange with one of the students.