I stumbled across a poem by Ben Okri that stopped me in my travel-writing tracks.
“Live while you are alive,” Okri wrote in his poem “To an English Friend in Africa” that was part of his 1992 poetry collection An African Elegy.
“See things with fresh and open eyes.”
“Be grateful for freedom, To see other dreams.”
I follow travel writer Alastair Humphreys, who said he carries that poem with him on his journeys, and used a phrase from it as the title of his book Moods of Future Joys. I don’t generally read a lot of poetry, but this one hit upon so many beliefs I have about travel and storytelling that I decided to share it here.
Primarily known as a poet, Okri is a Nigerian-born British writer of just about every word-based artistic form: novels, short stories, essays, film scripts, plays, poetry. He even invented a new written form – the Stoku, a cross between a short story and a haiku. His list of awards is long.
“Everyone’s reality is different,” he says on his website. “Everyone is looking out of the world through their emotion and history. Nobody has an absolute reality.”
Those words speak to my continual amazement at how differently people experience what seems to be the same thing: say, visiting a monastery or hiking a trail to see prehistoric carvings. One loves it; the other is bored. One is enchanted by stories that bring a place to life; the other can’t wait to get to a pub.
This inspires me to continue sharing my experiences, my point of view, my reality of the places where I travel. Although millions may have been there before me, no one has experienced it in quite the same way I have. So there’s a reason for me – and countless others – to share stories.
Of course, his words apply to many aspects of life, not just travel. Read his poem (interspersed with my photos) and see how he speaks to you.
“To an English Friend in Africa” by Ben Okri
Be grateful for freedom
To see other dreams.
Bless your loneliness as much as you drank
Of your former companionships.
All that you are experiencing now
Will become moods of future joys
So bless it all.
Do not think your ways superior
To another’s
Do not venture to judge
But see things with fresh and open eyes
Do not condemn
But praise what you can
And when you can’t be silent.
Time is now a gift for you
A gift of freedom
To think and remember and understand
The ever perplexing past
And to re-create yourself anew
In order to transform time.
Live while you are alive.
Learn the ways of silence and wisdom
Learn to act, learn a new speech
Learn to be what you are in the seed of your spirit
Learn to free yourself from all things that have moulded you
And which limit your secret and undiscovered road.
Remember that all things which happen
To you are raw materials
Endlessly fertile
Endlessly yielding of thoughts that could change
Your life and go on doing for ever.
Never forget to pray and be thankful
For all the things good or bad on the rich road;
For everything is changeable
So long as you live while you are alive.
Fear not, but be full of light and love;
Fear not but be alert and receptive;
Fear not but act decisively when you should;
Fear not, but know when to stop;
Fear not for you are loved by me;
Fear not, for death is not the real terror,
But life – magically – is.
Be joyful in your silence
Be strong in your patience
Do not try to wrestle with the universe
But be sometimes like water or air
Sometimes like fire
Live slowly, think slowly, for time is a mystery.
Never forget that love
Requires that you be
The greatest person you are capable of being,
Self-generating and strong and gentle –
Your own hero and star.
Love demands the best in us
To always and in time overcome the worst
And lowest in our souls.
Love the world wisely.
It is love alone that is the greatest weapon
And the deepest and hardest secret.
So fear not, my friend.
The darkness is gentler than you think.
Be grateful for the manifold
Dreams of creation
And the many ways of unnumbered peoples.
Be grateful for life as you live it.
And may a wonderful light
Always guide you on the unfolding road.
Okri’s words echo many of the guidelines I’ve set for my own travels and my own travel writing:
- “Praise what you can, And when you can’t be silent.” Although my journalistic background constantly intrudes, wanting me to fall into constant criticism, I choose instead to focus on the positive or to at least laugh at my own mistakes and foibles that lead to less-than-optimal experiences. As my grandmother used to say, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Grandma and Okri would have understood each other.
- “Remember that all things which happen, To you are raw materials, Endlessly fertile.” I’m constantly gathering material to write about – even poems I happen upon.
- “Live slowly, think slowly, for time is a mystery.” Retirement has granted us the time to slow down, to live and travel more slowly, and to take the time to ponder life. Often, the meaning behind what we see and do on our travels becomes apparent long after the trip, not right away.
- “Time is now a gift for you, A gift of freedom, To think and remember and understand.” Retirement has indeed been a wonderful gift, a privilege, a freedom to contemplate experiences and how they relate to my past and my future and my now.
- “Live while you are alive.” I love this line in particular – to live while you are alive! The opposite – to sit still and stagnate – is not for me. I hope my travel stories reflect the awe and beauty and complexity of this wonderful world we live in. We just have to step out our doors and embark on adventures, to live while we are still alive.
That’s what I have taken from Okri’s wonderful poem… so far. It bears further, slow, contemplation.
“May a wonderful light, Always guide you on the unfolding road.”
I discovered Ben Okri in March 2026. Find out where we are right now by visiting our ‘Where’s Kathryn?’ page.
