It's quest time, Shmoopers. Strap on your sword, pull down your visor, and get ready to achieve grail-greatness.
"Directive" begins when a self-proclaimed guide meets you at the gate, shows you how to back out of your old crowded life into a past that is a bit blurry with age and weather. He stops to comment on a house and farm and town—none of which are there still. But there's a road etched by wagon wheels and a glacier's chisel, and the coolness of the mountain air, so that's something.
When you're passing the relics of an old homestead and the kids' playhouse, things get a little strange, especially since your guide really just wants you to get lost. He takes you beyond the old orchard, beyond the overgrown field, beyond the house and the playhouse, beyond even your own deepest confusion, and there you'll find a watering hole of sorts. Drink up, Shmoopers, we've arrived at the poem's end.