Author’s Note

This piece started with a line I came across:

“If you are in a hurry, take the long way around.”

I don’t know where it actually comes from—but the idea stuck.

We’re taught to move fast. To find the most direct path. To get from where we are to where we want to be as efficiently as possible.

But some things don’t survive that kind of movement.

Some growth only happens in the detours. In the delays. In the parts that feel unnecessary while you’re in them.

This piece isn’t about slowing down for the sake of it.

It’s about recognizing that sometimes, the long way isn’t a setback—

it’s the only path that lets you arrive intact.

— Rowan Evans

The Long Way Around
Poetry by Rowan Evans

If you’re in a hurry,
go the long way ’round—
because sometimes
the straight line
is the one that breaks you.

It’s not ease
that shapes you.

It’s the winding roads
that make you.

It’s the bends,
the breaks,
the slow turns
that teach you.

It’s the corners,
the pauses,
the places you swore
you’d never have to pass through.

And somehow,
by the time you reach the end,
you realize
the long way
was the only way
you could have survived.

Yet still,
you arrive—

not quickly,
but whole.

The long way
is the way
that lasts.

Journey into the Hexverse!

[Where the Tide Calls Me]
What if feeling stuck isn’t about being lost—but about resisting where you’re meant to go? Where the Tide Calls Me explores belonging, movement, and the courage to follow an unseen pull.

[Just Before I Arrive]
A voice calls from somewhere just out of reach. Just Before I Arrive explores the feeling of being guided through a dream toward connection—only to wake up before you get there.

[Dreaming of Other Streets]
What if the places that feel like home aren’t the ones you’ve lived in? This poem explores dreams, memory, and the quiet search for belonging in unfamiliar places

If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]