Poetry Xtras » "Labyrinth" by Jared Carter

Set into the pavement floors of many of the great cathedrals of Europe are large geometric patterns that turn out to be, on closer examination, elaborate mazes. We are told that in the late middle ages pilgrims, arriving at these churches, performed additional penance by traversing such mazes on their knees. Labyrinths and mazes are ancient architectural motifs, and the experience of wandering through a series of unfamiliar rooms or passageways, searching for a way out, is almost universal. In the ancient Roman city of Trier, in the west of Germany, the ruins of the enormous baths at the edge of the city offer a series of below-ground hallways, tunnels, and corridors through which one can wander for long periods of time and yet not arrive at anything in particular.