Back home

A week of writing and reading—a perfect vacation. It started on the plane as I was drifting off to sleep, tired beyond my bones. In that state of extreme relaxation—surrender—the images arrived. I didn't get a nap, but I did get another poem.

I spent my time away reading Il Purgatorio and The Beautiful and Damned—not the usual poolside fare, but a strangely compatible combination. And I worked on my long project, although I'm still struggling with the Italian. (Do I need it? Am I forcing it? Am I chickening out?)

But my attempts to write about Hawaii are still trivial. I know that sometimes travel poems come long after the trip has ended, and I have some ideas intellectually about how to craft them, but the images remain predictable.

Do you write travel poems or place poems—whether they are the same or different? How do you approach them? Do you have favorite travel, or place, poets whose writing inspires you?