On a recent trip to Ireland, Wales, and England, I was hoping to keep a daily travel journal. Although, I’m a writer by trade, it seemed a daunting task. Taking the time each and every day of the trip to consider what I had seen and experienced is one thing, but then writing it all down in a cohesive readable fashion seemed another. Too much for a pleasure trip, it seemed. I never was a daily diary keeper or one who regularly journaled, still I wanted to remember this special journey in writing in some way. I decided to write a daily poem.
The Idea
Many of us keep journals when we travel, writing down simple thoughts, dates, and places, and sometimes taking time to write lengthy remembrances. But this time, I thought committing to the idea of creating verse would be a more immediate, emotionally driven way to do it. And maybe more fun.
I’ve written some poetry, some even published, but poetry would not be considered my main genre. And honestly, that is not the point at all. It is not about whether you can write the best poetry, or even good poetry. And maybe you’ve never tried to write a poem. It doesn’t matter.
The idea is simply about documenting one’s emotional journey, and any of us can do that. Travel is a good way to begin, but you can do it as an everyday practice, too. Remember what author John Steinbeck wrote: “And now that you don’t have to be perfect you can be good.”
I told myself I did not want to belabor every word while writing the poem, but instead to let the poems rise out of the moment, making only minor adjustment or word changes within only a few minutes after their initial creation.
Essentially, they were written in of-the-moment emotion. They were poems of the present, written with the heart, written to be just for now.
Keep them short, simple, and use your senses – what you see, hear, and smell.Write what is in your soul. Simple. Immediate. Let it be what it is at that singular time. This is your poetry. You make the rules. This permits it to be the perfect discipline for stretching your creative side, a process many medical professionals say helps us cognitively and emotionally in our later years.
Example Poetry
Part of the trip brought me to Kinsale, Ireland. If you are not familiar, it’s a fishing port in the southern part of the country with colorful houses and incredible restaurants filled with seafood pulled from waters just feet away. On the interior wall of one establishment were the black-and-white photographs of a dozen fishermen, men and women who worked the nearby sea for years, along with their fathers before them.
Those photographs sparked a short poem.
The Fishermen
The sea has stained his face in streams of blood and salt,
his father had the same, and the father before him, too,
gathering oysters and mussels in water-soaked knots of briny nets.
It’s a good day in Kinsale when the fishermen rest
with a smoke and a pint as laughter crackles
as they talk of good weather and women,
and the goodbyes are only until tomorrow
when dawn awakens to the silent sound
of silvery wakes on a quiet sea.
Poems as Diary Entries
The poem served as a record in verse for a specific and very particular evening in Ireland. Is it great poetry? No. It is poetry of experience? Yes. And so, it can mark the minutes of a life. It can document the singular and yet deep weight of a specific time and place. Call it instant poetry, poetry that has no other purpose than to say, “I was here. This is what I saw. What I felt at this very moment.”
So, on your next adventure – around the world or around the block on your daily walk – let your senses take over, and then later in a quiet moment, write in verse what you feel. Short. Long. In between. Rhyme or not. Just let it out. Let your creativity loose.
I wrote 13 poems on my trip, 13 hyper-focused exchanges, one each day, observations, and emotions, my personal poetic diary of nearly two weeks of traveling to new and unforgettable places. You can do the same. Let your heart and experiences be your guide and you’ll have a unique and memorable diary of your place in this world.
Questions for Reflection:
What does poetry mean to you? Have you tried writing poems to express your feelings when you travel? Do you keep a travel journal? What do you write in it?
