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Health & Fitness

Global travel through poetry - no passport necessary!

I have always believed in poetry's power to transport the reader or listener to destinations unknown. Highland Park Poetry now features poems and photographs that literally travel around the globe in our Muses' Gallery.

I have always believed in poetry’s power to transport the reader or listener to destinations unknown.  Highland Park Poetry now features poems and photographs that literally travel around the globe in our Muses’ Gallery.  Now that summer vacation is over for most folks with kids heading back to school, our only immediate opportunity for travel is the armchair variety fueled by poetry, photography and our imaginations.  Below are a couple of samples from the Muses’ Gallery - Holland by Marjorie Rissman and Holiday in Firenze by Judith MK Tepfer.  If this whets your appetite for adventure and distant destinations, be sure to check out all the poems on the Muses’ Gallery at www.highlandparkpoetry.org.  These will remain actively posted through the early-October.

Holland By Marjorie Rissman

It merely took the bed of tulips

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To transport me to Holland:

My walking shoes became

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Wooden clogs hand painted

With spring daffodils and robins,

The blossoming trees,

Now windmills in my mind.

I smelled the vendor's

Waffle cones freshly baking

Where seconds ago there was

The aroma of early morning

Dew on recently cut grass.

I saw ice cream parlors and chocolate stores

Instead of banks and iconic yellow arches.

The creek swollen from flooding rains

Returned to sleepy canals adorned with

Water taxis and barges slowly drifting

Beyond the pastel horizon.

Who needs a passport

When travel is a moment

Of one's own imagination.

* * *

Holiday in Firenze By Judith MK Tepfer

Piazza della Republica, Firenze,

sitting at a remnant of the Renaissance,

the café latté soothes me,

the sound of Spanish guitar warms me,

and the arms of my beloved lull me

as both of us close our eyes

and let this day wash over us,

our first day of pure Italian sunshine,

a holiday when all is closed and 

we thought we'd have nothing to do ...

we are grateful there's nothing to do.

It is everything.

* * *

If you are interested in having your poem or photograph posted on the Muses’ Gallery – our next theme is Poetry Goes to the Movies.  Highland Park Poetry seeks submissions of cinematic poems, photography, and new cinepoems (the fusion of poetry and film).  Text poems should not exceed 30 lines and may be about your favorite movie experiences, a special movie theatre, or even an ode to James Bond or a sonnet to Walt Disney.  Deadline is October 4. Contact jennifer@highlandparkpoetry.org.

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