Benefits of Travel

 

Walk with us through gardens of delight,

Inhabiting our minds and memories.

Scale the high peaks of our ecstasy

Bathe under cataracts in pools of heaven;

Drive on scenic roads of life, -

Fly over rivers, canyons and hills;

Sail seas, oceans even of blue water,

Sleek dolphin and flying fish.

Watch waves breaking, mountainous

Beyond climbing, threatening.

Know with us, flowers and songs of the countryside.

We journey far and see old places of our continent,

Ancient wonders of Greece, of Rome;

Wondrous art, architecture, sculpture

Through the inspiration of God

Using the hands of man.

Fortresses and castles of the Iberias;

The New World too, within our compass –

Woods, lakes, rocky mountain heights

We hear their songs, instruments, music,

Birdsong, voices; the sounds of night.

Savour sweet foreign scents,

Taste new oft-times fiery foods.

Warmth from foreign sun is on us,

Faces bear differing shapes and colours

Voices speak strange tongues

As though we are at Pentecost.

Here, a palace of marble and precious woods;

There a habitation built with scraps;

See! Trains, boats, planes, cars

Move between affluence and poverty

While elsewhere, horse, camel, llama, yak and mule

Carry the loads of poor but cheerful people

In desert and mountain villages.

Look up on a frosty mountain night!

Did we ever see the heavens so bright?

The sky so black, from our own city?

Breathe deep.

Smell the sea, ozone, salt, iodine!

Is it like that across a land-bounded estuary?

Listen with us to the music of Spain, Of China, of Africa, Of India;

Hear the gamelan in Bali, the Appalachian fiddle,

A Russian choir, Fado in Portugal.

These are not the sounds you’ll hear sitting at home,

Listening to media outpourings - - are they?

 

What a wonderful world we still have,

Lent to us through the blessing of its Creator,

Afforded us through travel,

Offering us the Privilege,

The Responsibility.

Of Care.

Reviews

[emmajoy]

Oh what a glorious piece of writing... it makes me want to stuff some bits into a bag and just go!

John, your travel posts are wonderful, you write with such emotion, writing each line as if you can see and hear each part of your phrase's content! You obviously love to travel and it shows in every word.

'Woods, lakes, rocky mountain heights / We hear their songs, instruments, music, / Birdsong, voices; the sounds of night. / Savour sweet foreign scents, / Taste new oft-times fiery foods. ' --- those lines are just wonderful because they meld Nature with Man's world.

Those final lines sum up the heart and sight of a man who writes about his world and thanks God for it though his poetry .. thank you for that.

' What a wonderful world we still have, / Lent to us through the blessing of its Creator, / Afforded us through travel, / Offering us the Privilege, / The Responsibility. / Of Care.'

[Phibby Venable]

John, this is so incredible to me & how wonderful to see things from your eyes.
My poetry has trotted off all around the world, but I have never been out of the
South. That fact made the poem even more beautiful to me! thank you.

[Ed Hart]

it's a round world, and the smiles and the probing eyes that greet us in the shifting terrain of mountains and canyons and trees that pierce the heavens and oceans that take no prisoners, and asian cities that school our imagination and bring to life the echoes of names that reach from our childhood, and all of this in the aggregate makes us citizens of the world and shows us the pictures of our true family...thank you, ed

[EILEEN McGUINNESS]

You paint a wonderful picture here with all of your descriptive passages, i am presuming that you have travelled extensively throughout europe and beyond.
I think MALTA is one of the most unusual countries in terms of it's traditional form of transport with the orange style school buses going hand in hand with the horse and cart having flown in to valetta airport and greeted by a brand new airport staying at luxurious places like st.julians bay etc.
I think only a person who might have been in the services like navy could maybe appreciate for free the wonders you describe in this brilliant poem.
Yes god has indeed created a wonderful paradise just a shame man is hell bent on it's destruction

[An owl on the moon]

Such an uplifting work of art, celebrating a most wondrous world we live it and God's great handiwork! I could sense the beauty of nature, feel the depth of human history, hear the cheerful voices, and it made me long to go forth. Oh, one day! One day I will! And I will see all that you've written come alive around me. Thank you so much for this inpiration!

[Emily B]

I wonder that I do not travel more. I enjoyed this adventure. Looking forward to more exotic places. . .