Travelling has an international activity has finally taken place for me. Timely as it were, just as routine shifted the opportunity was bound to present itself, and so it did, November 20 2011. Since November 20 the experience (that still continues til Jan 26) has took me from my home in Sydney to New York City, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Paris and now Zurich, before departing soon to Berlin followed by Amsterdam, back to London then home. In the past, prior to this debut outing, friends have always returned from similar overseas voyagers with a despair and an envy for the new lifestyles they've sampled and the cultural capitals they felt a sense of belonging to, whether it be New York or Berlin (commonly) and then suddenly and without option, back 'down under'.
Anywhere one is in the world l'm beginning to believe (and as it shouldn't come with much surprise) everyone's just getting on with their lives and chances are, as a tourist in a major city for several weeks with a City Card, you've seen more of their city than they have, at least with the liberty to enjoy it.
By no means can l call myself well travelled at this juncture but i think the things that direct us where we should travel or even live abroad are small and very personalised facets of particular environments that are otherwise filled with the same faults, joys, ambitions and failures as where you're from and where you'll return to. Perhaps the world has just become a lot more globalised in recent times as well.. however i do think it's a weakness to blame the time you belong to.
The opposite sex (or of what sexual preference you take) is more exciting overseas, just as a personal note, perhaps it's the accents. It seems to me so far that every city is like a knife sharpened in a slightly different way and depending on what form of masochism you prefer, then that is the city for you; that isn't as cruel as it sounds, pleasure and pain and the extremes of city living.
Below are two new poems written whilst on the road. A collection of poems collected from 2011 are back in Sydney on my laptop and will be projected upward upon return in late January/early February 2012
Many many new photos and sketches to come, also with return to Sydney
J
Working title*
'They emerge unscathed to see
all nations are just like one
and to value their disingenuous fun
is liberty untouched,
even when available and free'
To see how each city persists
with it's legends of the past
i sit poised place after place
prepared to say
the people are so nice
the air is so clean
the weather is so fair
the metropolis is so,
gentle and forgiving
Once, the light beyond the door
pushed the hinges slightly
enough to hang a bright ticket
over my reaching tips
l spent whole days
celebrating how lucky l was
The olive green parcels
of eucalyptus, ash and earth
resigned to the emerald dialect
to peer into a grey mirror
the cold with no scent of snow
the sun swindled by noon
the student's hidden hash
the immigrant's wet passport
monochromatic and misleading
Just as the travel agent foresaw
alone in an ancient grey cafe
now clamer to the shore or breath
the ocean like wind, the temptation
to keep one of Europe's own cities
you don't speak just listen, nor return home
Actor's Outlook
Acts of courage during our life
later prepare us
for an easier deal with death
Stoke on Trent
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