Lost Poem

This is an excerpt from the memoir "World Without Pain: The Story of a Search". In the 1970s, while hitchhiking through southeastern Iran on his way to India, another traveler stole Walters' passport. Forced to return to Tehran, totally broke, he begged on the streets for weeks while trying to obtain a new one. The lost poem arose from his despair.

John Walters recently returned to the United States after thirty-five years abroad. He lives in Seattle, Washington. He attended the 1973 Clarion West science fiction writing workshop and is a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. He writes mainstream fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and memoirs of his wanderings around the world.