Not The Same...(as being there)

 Imagination, as fine as it's flight is, 

Cannot transport us by pictures or fact

No matter how well we tell it or write it

Thought grasps but glimpses of full impact!

And we'll never be able to understand or care

As fully as those who can say "I've been there"

(This applies to traveling on a trip or traveling through ups and downs of life!)

Oh, you tell me it was lovely

Rave of moments fine and fair

But the truth is, there is nothing

Quite the same as being there

We are like a band of pilgrims

On time’s seasoned thoroughfare

Always looking through a window

Filled with scenes of “I’ve been there”

While the scenes of ‘you’ve been there’ oh

Though I try with all my heart

Are like reaching for a shadow

Or a phantom work of art

(I’ve heard tell of times and places

Castles, Ireland so green

Through your kind and smiling faces

I try to glimpse what you’ve seen)

But, my wildest fits of fancy

Or mind-sketches on the air

(Though quite grand) they never can be

Quite the same as being there

I tell you of scenes compelling

You attempt to feel the bliss

But the truth is, just the telling

Is not the same as the kiss

© Janet Martin