the way down to Hades is easy:
    night & day the dim gates lie open –
    but to retrace your steps to the upper air
    that’s the effort, that the work
 
The journey to the underworld is also a descent into memory. Portals open in Venice and the Peak District; in the necromancy of Greek tragedy and the baked landscape of Avignon. Strange and familiar roads converge on the dead / anagnorisis / the encounter with the Other where all language fails.