Hello friends! It’s been two whole weeks since I last traveled (gasp!), so I need to get on the move again. I am taking advantage of my two days off from work to visit my friend in Maine! My journey starts tomorrow at 6:30 am (yuck) as I catch a train to Boston to take a bus from there to my destination.
I found that I actually enjoy taking public transportation for long-distant travel. It gives me time to just sit, listen to music, read, and especially, write.
And write I did. I found that my time in Europe really got my juices flowing and I wrote more creatively during my time there than I have ever before. Here’s a poem I wrote which was published in the Castle’s literary magazine. I thought I’d share since it not only reflects how I felt during my travels, but also what I’m feeling now after being home for nearly a month.
Where is home?
Home is found in worn New England streets, paved with children’s shoes and bikes and the tires of my first car
In tired Boston monuments
and in the breath taken away by its skyline
I was told before I went away
That I would never come back
And I did not believe them
Thinking my heart would be forever trapped
Like a hand print in concrete on those East Coast streets
And then I lost myself
A piece of my heart nestling in these castle walls and cobblestone squares
And on the brick roads leading to everywhere imaginable
A piece of me slipped into Amsterdam
In a crowded Irish pub
Amongst confessed words and hushed jazz
I grew roots in London
In the underground and by fairy tale palaces
And there’s a part of me in Paris
Drowning in cheap wine and stuck between apartment bed sheets
I’m in Cologne, on crowded, commercial streets
And yet, in the quietest corner of Well
I am in places that I’ve yet to see
Somewhere across the sea from what I’ve known
I lost myself in the best way
And I don’t think
I can ever be home again.
What do you think? Does travel inspire creativity in you? Share your thoughts!
Erin Kayata 