To The Young Journeyman

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedBe still, young journeyman: be in the gloom.
Within you, your supernova will bloom.
A source of light needs a place it can start
To illuminate the cosmic oceans.
You’re the North Star. Let the gift-givers chart
A course of their own makings and motions.

Be still, young journeyman: Fortune arrives
For those whose resolve, through tension, survives.
The world may tremble, and you need not jump
When God shouts “Timber!” and Yggdrasil falls.
Fate will carve way-markers in the tree stump
And pave the path for when Destiny calls.

Be still, young journeyman: frost does good things
For your blood and spirit that does its rings,
Memorising all the vessels en-route.
This is where true beauty crystallises.
Defined by past and future thoughts is moot.
Be in the now, for that’s where your prize is.

Be still, young journeyman. Be bold and hold
The moment up to your lips like it’s gold.
That wondrous creation upon your tongue:
Savour its flavour, let it embellish
Every deep breath from the depths of each lung
As you say that to belong here’s your wish.

To The Young Journeyman ~ A Poem by Tom Shaw

This poem originated from a writing workshop I attended in Bournemouth, UK, from the local poet C.W. Blackburn, where we explored the idea of “journeys”. This brought up the idea of the journeyman - a concept from medieval Europe referring to a worker who has completed an apprenticeship, but who is generally employed by others while they progress to becoming a master. In France and Germany, this led to a tradition of wandering journeymen, who would leave home following their apprenticeship and travel across the land in order to learn from others in different localities en-route to becoming a master.

This practise has largely died out in a formal sense - but, if anything, it is absolutely thriving in an informal sense. The “digital nomad” phenomenon is a clear example, but it’s far more subtle than this too. How many young adults are coming out of uni and cycling between different professions, departments and jobs as they try to find their place and practise in the world? How many young people have journeyed from their hometown in search of opportunities in bigger cities or elsewhere? Quite a few based on my discussions.

How many of them still feel they have to keep searching elsewhere in order to find a sense of completion and belonging?

It was my birthday a few days ago, and in looking back on my life thus far, I see how this has very much been one of my own struggles. I know, too, that I’m not the only one who’s experienced this “journey”. In losing a sense of grounding to the people and places around us (as well as myself) I’ve gone through the motions of chasing whatever I can see externally to little avail. Things opened up for me when I realised I could forever chase what was around me and that I would never feel any different about myself or my place in the world. When I began looking inward, I realised that all the work I had to there would carry with me wherever I go, and suit me for the better. I realised that it is from within that I change and shape the world with-out me. I no longer have to chase because I am solid in my roots and foundations. The things in life come to me because I can demand those things come to me, rather than the other way round. It’s the shift from being the victim of our circumstances to being the creator of our circumstances. And now it’s what I guide others to find as part of Master Your Word.

Where will the future lead me? I don’t know. I also don’t need to know. I will end up wherever my gifts are needed most, and wherever I am needed in order to work through the blockages in my inner realm. That faith is liberating, and it’s in writing poems like this - first for myself - that remind me of this when I have my doubts. I am already the master of my own life; I always have been. Now I get the fun of seeing what that looks like in my embodied form.

What a great birthday present that realisation is!

Thank you for making time to read this piece. Leave a comment to let me know how it landed with you, and I look forward to bringing you more soon.

With gratitude,

Tom