Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged Cape Flats, Capetown, Nelson Mandela, poem, Poetry, Robben Island, South Africa, Table Mountain, The Flats, Travel, Travel writing on 24/02/2012| 1 Comment »
42. South Africa
At Table Mountain, the cable car floats us serenely above the hunkering Flats of Capetown.
The air is scorched by the sunset, but clear of the fetid undercurrent of bravado and fear
that lurks beneath the city’s civilian clothing.
In the far distance, Robben Island: brittle birthplace of a nation.
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged Arrowtown, backpacking, glacier, New Zealand, poem, The Remarkables, Travel on 16/02/2012| 4 Comments »
OK, so this week, you have a choice of two ’50 words’ – sometimes I write more than one, because of course there are many indelible ‘moments’ when travelling, and this week I couldn’t decide what mood I was in, so you have a bit of both – light and dark:
41. New Zealand
41.a
So there I am – girly heaven:
wallowing in an outdoor cast iron bath,
hot water swirling,
(bubbles of course)
champagne glass to hand.
Head lolling on the edge of the tub.
Admiring the endless mountainscape of the aptly named ‘Remarkables’.
Nothing but steam and immodesty between me and the view.
jpm
41.b.
On the Franz Josef Glacier, it’s all so unexpected.
The ice is not white, but an unearthly blue,
and it’s not cold and silent, but alive with unexpectedly human sounds
groaning, creaking, squealing, grinding.
I hold my breath,
step tentatively.
Somehow to still the lumbering giant:
Unstoppable author of landscapes
jpm
Posted in Poetry, Travel, Travel Writing, tagged celebration, Champs Elysee, France, New Year's Eve, Paris, Poetry, Travel, Travel writing on 09/02/2012| Leave a Comment »
40. France (Paris, New Year’s Eve, 1989)
Champs Elysee, twenty-four: the whole world before me.
Uniting adrenalin of the pulsating crowd:
350,000 intimate strangers surging as one euphoric organism.
Midnight hovers.
A collective breath …..
BONNE ANNÉE!!!!
Then. Rush for the last metro –
Trammeled and crushed, footing lost …. panic!!!
then …. relief!
Spewed to the side like yesterday’s resolutions.
jpm
50 words for 50 countries 