Tag: Travel

AND KEY WEST

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

1

joining me as a bowsprit
on my usual whale-watch vessel
now wintering in Florida, a day trip
en route to Key West

a lonely teen evokes
my lover in college
the year before I met her before

two dolphins leap in front of us and

in his rounds, a crewman explains

“you don’t see that often, especially so far
from shore . you saw them, didn’t you?
you’re very lucky”

an omen, then, to the past

2

in town, roosters in banty yards
on back streets, warning

BEWARE
OF DOG

such a disappointing declaration
to swarming eyeballs
anticipating something more exotic
a gator, perchance, or snakepit
or open voodoo performed with hot sauce
please understand, you’re approaching Haiti

3

acknowledging this is an island of Biblical proportions
I stand outside Hemingway’s veranda
and shout prophetically

KELSEY SENDS
HER REGARDS

meaning her scorn
for required high school reading

this touch of sarcasm gleaned
teaching Sunday school
in New Hampshire

this day, when I’m my own old man of the sea,
is held in the tentacles of Genesis

4

again the Gulf waters roil
and the decision is announced
we’ll be sent back by land (one)
rather than any Paradise Lost
without moonlight
in the dark
road houses and health food
storefronts along the midnight
highway become fragments
of reggae notes, the songs of another
vanished lover, between mangrove

5

even on a subtropical bus
cockroaches climb toilet walls
mimicking addresses I’ve left

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see the full set of seacoast poems, click here.

HONORING THE MARITIME LEGACY

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

 

Suspended overhead.
Suspended overhead.

A reconstructed whale skeleton suspended in the New England Aquarium pays homage to the region’s close relationship to the sea. For generations, whaling was a major industry that provided essential oil to illuminate the night. The aquarium sits on a wharf in Boston Harbor.

The city is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.

And you knew all along it was a flipper, right?
And you knew all along it was a flipper, right?

 

HANCOCK TOWERS, OLD AND NEW

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment
Designed by I.M. Pei, it's the tallest building in Boston. I love how its surroundings reflect in its mirror.
Designed by Henry N. Cobb of I.M. Pei & Partners, it’s the tallest building in Boston. I love how its surroundings reflect in its mirror. Trinity Church, lower right, is an architectural masterpiece in its own right.

The John Hancock Insurance Co. is celebrated in the two skyscrapers it erected in Boston’s Back Bay.

The city is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or even of the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.

Here we are, closer to the ground.
Here we are, closer to the ground.

A DESERT AND A SEA

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

A hundred miles inland from the nearest port, we encountered a three-legged tree. Until looking closer after being told the house beside it was built a century earlier by a retired sea captain, you’d have no clue a whale jaw had been leaned against the young trunk, where they grew together.

Irrigated, of course, this being desert.

The question remained. Who was farther from true home?

For more insights from the American Far West and Kokopelli, click here.

 

 

CLOCKING THE AGES

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments
At the rear of the great hall.
At the rear of the great hall.

The great speeches, lectures, and debates gracing Faneuil Hall over the years reflect the rise and advance of American liberty and democracy.

Boston is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.