Underground.
Moving quickly from A
to B. Buskers, prophets, closing doors
buzzers: they all tickle
my fernweh
Places that are not here attract. The Germans have a beautiful word for that: Fernweh. The hurt one feels for wanting to be far away. As a curious person, I like to be away. Far, or near. I like that I live in a place, even a country, that I did not grow up in. But I like to visit new places, too. Not just out of curiosity, or the longing to discover a new place, and with it new things about myself. Also because of the journey that gets me there. To me, a journey on the local train and the metro is a great way to soothe that ache for being someplace else. The people, the sounds, the underground tunnels connecting one line to the next. I love it. I wrote this poem on a recent trip to Paris. I also put it to a soundscape of sounds picked up in the metro recently. Press play below:
Do you like to travel? For the journey or the destination? Or both?
PS: the poem on top is a tritriplicata, a poetic form I created. If you want to know more about it, click here to find answers to some of the questions you might have.
Poetry Elsewhere
When I tried to publish only on Medium for about a year, I joined a wonderful band of poets called The POM. This group felt like a family, which was in no small way thanks to the founder Christina M. Ward. She’s a poet who inspired a large group of other poets to connect and help each other. Now, she has recently published 2 new poetry collections: Fireflies and Verse by Candlelight. You can get them on Amazon. Treat yourself. For a partial preview: see below. And don’t forget to follow Christina on Medium or Twitter.
#BTLP Update
My head, especially while running, is still overflowing with ideas on how to make my #BTLP, Bigger Than Life Project, work. Or, how to start making it work. A big part of it is about providing a stage for other poets. I’m very careful not to share their words here without proper compensation, which I think they all deserve. So, if you just look at the previous section, you’ll get a glimpse of where I would like my #BTLP to go: helping other poets earn a living. For now, I will highlight books of other poets you can buy.
You can start supporting me with this by sharing this post with the lovely people in your networks. And, if you receive this without being a subscriber, subscribe. I have two buttons for you to make that easy:
Oh, and don’t forget, you can also still buy my book if you so wish. I recommend it, click the button below:
octoberffct
Have you already listened to the octoberffct playlist? I’m testing this service for my readers: a curated playlist each month to get your creative juices flowing or build a bubble for you to enjoy a good book. So: grab your book, light your fires (fireplace, candles, reading lights) and press play:
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I love your reading with the sound effects. A wonderful poem!