The first time I started leaving art and poetry on the Camino de Santiago was when I walked it, starting it on the summer solstice of 2004. I brought along some beautiful poetry of somebody else’s, which I would like to talk more about in another post. I wrote the poems in coloured chalk pastels along the Camino, under bridges and in places that could do with some poetry. After I met James my ephemeral chalk turned to a beautiful shade of indigo permanent marker! The surfaces I chose were somewhat in need of a more committed poem! A dumped white freezer and lump of cement on the Via de la Plata, if you are passing! A run down refugio where James framed two of the poems with wood from a broken chair and twine. There is also a scroll of one of the poems up a tree by a fountain in a town in Galicia, we it hid there exactly 4 years ago, I know because it was James´ Birthday!
James and I spent allot of time toing and froing on the Camino by foot, car and a camper van. We did various projects along the way. Starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-du-Port where there should still be a Haiku on the back of a wooden sign post.

Pilgrims passing through
mountains crowned with clouds
Trail of grace

Then further on in a valley etched into the side of a rock

Midnight procession
shepherds lantern
and sheep bells

Where once we had the Secret Garden before Moratinos three pieces of oak from a wine barrel supported the words

Journey to the moon
between two worlds
astronauts sing

above “Drift” left “Trail of grace” haiku   Copyright © 2008 by Marianne Potterton. All rights reserved