Travel Poems
Song Of The Open Road
by Walt Whitman
AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune--I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.
The earth--that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
......
Home And Love
by Robert William Service
Just Home and Love! the words are small
Four little letters unto each;
And yet you will not find in all
The wide and gracious range of speech
Two more so tenderly complete:
When angels talk in Heaven above,
I'm sure they have no words more sweet
Than Home and Love.
Just Home and Love! it's hard to guess
......
Conroy's Gap
by Banjo Paterson
This was the way of it, don't you know --
Ryan was "wanted" for stealing sheep,
And never a trooper, high or low,
Could find him -- catch a weasel asleep!
Till Trooper Scott, from the Stockman's Ford --
A bushman, too, as I've heard them tell --
Chanced to find him drunk as a lord
Round at the Shadow of Death Hotel.
D'you know the place? It's a wayside inn,
A low grog-shanty -- a bushman trap,
......
Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
MY trust in nothing now is placed,
Hurrah!
So in the world true joy I taste,
Hurrah!
Then he who would be a comrade of mine
Must rattle his glass, and in chorus combine,
Over these dregs of wine.
......
Faute De Mieux
by Dorothy Parker
Travel, trouble, music, art,
A kiss, a frock, a rhyme-
I never said they feed my heart,
But still they pass my time.
An Arctic Story
by Dr. Robert Ippaso
At first light trudging through the Arctic Snow,
Is it for thrill or just a Facebook photo show?
As the Arctic wind buffets our flushed face,
The long-awaited walk soon becomes a shambles of a race.
Hands morph to splintered wood, eyebrows deftly freeze,
And yet the brochure promised we’d do this trek with ease.
Soldier on, embrace the frigid grind,
Pray aloud that inner fortitude to find,
Not a sound outside our laden breath,
Every move made with fractured hapless stealth.
......
Sweet Sorrow
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Bonnie Brown was in love with Charles, like black pearl clings to night,
So young and engaged to be married, like myriad stars, shining white.
They were active professionals, dwelling in a charming, bustling town;
As warbling charms orange noon, after pink mist clears, with no sound.
They had dreams of future and a family, like purple nights of fantasy;
And they were already making plans, like butterflies flitting frantically.
Fellowship of friends made fabulous Fridays, when they met after hours,
......
Is something calling again
by Amy Michelle Mosier
Is something calling again
From the distant hills outbound?
Is it a small voice within
Or something hidden without?
What awaits you down the road
Once you cross the valley bridge?
Should you find it and take hold
Will it satiate a wish?
......
Rare and stark is the isolated island
by Amy Michelle Mosier
Rare and stark is the isolated island
In its heart - its bipolar mood
And it stokes within the imagination
A fire - a want of pursuit.
Its knobby fingers reach out to a black sea -
Bringing roamers to some land's end;
Its fjords entice sojourners in for relief
After a frigid trip endured.
......
Saint-Léger en Bray
by Joe Cyr
(Rondel)
Le Domaine du Colombier flaunts a charming castle villa
near Saint-Léger en Bray, a town whose charm
time has not yet erased.
Ancient walls flank historic houses
in colombage sides embraced;
narrow walking paths lace a trellised flowered cornucopia.
Enhancing the provincial community’s medieval aura
is a miniature cathedral, to sixteenth-century traced.
......
