Travel Poems

Big Frank is on the road again - off to Japan. Travel always takes the traveler away, not just physically. This is probably the best part of travel. The familiar is left behind and the mind travels to new places. Here are two poems that capture that larger view of travel, one by Big Frank, and one by Dick Allen. More to come from the land of the sliding doors.
[Photo: Big Frank Dickinson]

A Traveler's Wish
By BIG FRANK DICKINSON

Let me take off clearly knowing nothing
Haunts me as I move outside of the usual;
Let those dear ones behind be as
Safe at home as I will be on the road.

Let the journey take me outside of me
To a place long-sought, accepted, and true;
Let this absence be a presence
Arriving with me and welcomed by all.

Let the return be a renewed reward
For having left the unwanted behind.
Let my presence be a fulfillment;
What's wanted welcomed home.


What You Have to Get Over
BY DICK ALLEN

Stumps. Railroad tracks. Early sicknesses,
the blue one, especially.
Your first love rounding a corner,
that snowy minefield.

Whether you step lightly or heavily,
you have to get over to that tree line a hundred yards in the distance
before evening falls,
letting no one see you wend your way,

that wonderful, old-fashioned word, wend,
meaning “to proceed, to journey,
to travel from one place to another,”
as from bed to breakfast, breakfast to imbecile work.

You have to get over your resentments,
the sun in the morning and the moon at night,
all those shadows of yourself you left behind
on odd little tables.

Tote that barge! Lift that bale! You have to
cross that river, jump that hedge, surmount that slogan,
crawl over this ego or that eros,
then hoist yourself up onto that yonder mountain.

Another old-fashioned word, yonder, meaning
“that indicated place, somewhere generally seen
or just beyond sight.” If you would recover,
you have to get over the shattered autos in the backwoods lot

to that bridge in the darkness
where the sentinels stand
guarding the border with their half-slung rifles,
warned of the likes of you.

The Trumpeter of Krakow

Big Frank was in Krakow, Poland yesterday visiting his son, Konrad who lives in nearby Zakopane. Krakow is well known for is main square where St. Mary's Cathedral is situated. There is a trumpeter that plays a a tune called heynal in Polish. The legend has it that this tune was originally played by the trumpeter of Krakow during the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. The tune has only five notes and is interrupted at the end just as the trumpeter who originally played the tune was shot in the throat and killed by a Mongol arrow. So Big Frank and Konrad climbed to the top of the church tower (see photo - taller tower is where the trumpeter plays from - through the windows). They took some photos and were there when the trumpeter emerged and played his tune through windows on all four sides of the cathedral. No Mongol archers, however, interrupted the tune and all lived to climb down the stairs afterwards.

Soren Kierkegaard

Above is a photo of the statue of Soren Kierkegaard in the garden next to the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Keirkegaard is generally regarded as the first existentialist philosopher. His work while religious has great resonance in his answers to the question: how should I live? Here are some quotations from his writings:

... love yourself!

Once you label me you negate me.

Nothing is as heady as the wine of possibility.

The most common form of despair is not being who you are.

Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

He who cannot reveal himself cannot love, and he who cannot love is the most unhappy man of all.

It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Love is like a snowmobile racing across the frozen tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At the night the ice weasels come.

To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity.

Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see.

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.

Big Frank in Copenhagen

Big Frank arrived in Copenhagen yesterday. This is mostly about work, but not all about it. Copenhagen is a great city to get around in on a bike, and the Danes are big bike riders. Big Frank rented a bike today and spent the day riding around the city. Here are a few photos that he took. The one directly above is Big Frank's bike.

Wheels up to . . . the Land of the SLIDING DOORS

Wheels up tomorrow morning for JAPAN (a magic carpet ride!).

And YES, the magic lantern is back.

At the Old Ball Game

Big Frank became a Rockies' fan last night. In Denver with Dan they went to Coors Stadium with Dan's friend Brian to cheer on the Rockies. It was a good game in which the Dodgers took the immediate lead, but the Rockies came back with a couple of homeruns and despite a lapse in pitcher by their closer, Street, they went on to win 5 - 3.

On the good front. Both Big Frank and Dan had foot long hot dogs with tons of junk on top: onions, mustard, peppers, and (for Big Frank only) sauerkraut. Brian said that we covered all the main food groups with that meal, and it sure felt like it when they had been consumed. And, of course, there was beer and lots and lots of peanuts.

Today it was biking and tomorrow - Big Frank and Dan head up into the mountains.