Sunday, October 11, 2009

It's time to travel again

My thoughts are stale. Even with the change of season, I find myself breathing one breath after another even as autumn sharpens the air. I shrug when called to come watch the flock of starlings descend on my neighbor's tree. Our fruiting grapevine has crawled throughout it like it was a kudzu, or an ivy. The grapes have turned from apple green to a translucent purple. The birds pluck at the purple globes, arguing greedily over clusters.

I finished drafting poem #39 about Vietnam. I have until the 15th of November to post-mark 50 pages of poetry for the Walt Whitman contest. The staleness of my brain makes me look at the way I use the same words over and over again. I seem particularly attached to colors. There are other senses as well, I remind myself. When I'm travelling, I have little time to sit and collect my thoughts. When I'm at home too long, I lose my memories and the repetition of being well-fed muffles the experience of each day actually being different than the one before. I have now bored myself with philosophy.

London?
Bangkok?
Greece?
Crete
Spain
Portugal
Ukraine
Romania
Japan
Austria

I need new smells. I'm ready to return to Vietnam just to be shocked again.