The Art of Traveling

Czeslaw Milosz, the great Polish poet of the 20th century writes in A Book of Luminous Things ‘since poetry is an expression of wondering at things, landscapes, people, their habits and mores, poetry and travel are allied.’ Better, I couldn’t have said it.
 
I frequently traveled in Western and Central Europe, through the immense and colourful landscapes of the Midwest of the USA, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, but I haven’t been – just to mention it - in Africa south of the Sahara. Read the book of Kapuscinki  ‘The shadow of the Sun’ and you are in Africa.  Read ‘The Rings of Saturn’ from W.G. Sebald and it is as if you stroll in the near emptiness of a landscape of dunes in Suffolk ( East England), while the author opens the archives of the world for you. Or read ‘Weerwerk’ (Counter Acting) from Bert Schierbeek and the intimate landscape of corn and grasses of eastern Groningen (the Netherlands) revives.

Whether it is the reflecting ricefields of Java and Bali, the forests of Sulawesi, the shining golden Buddha temples in Thailand, the piramids and ruins along the Ruta Maya in Yucatan, Guatemala or Honduras, the corall rifs of Bunaken ( Indonesia) or Caye Caulker (Belize), the American rain forests on the coast of the Pacific Ocean or the impenetrable mondi and its decaying mansions in the hills of Curacao  ( the Caribbean) – those are all places and moments par excellence of intense sensation and experience.

Traveling is often the art of observing, reflecting and meditating. Writing is the finishing touch. That is what you will find here.