Eucalyptus trees in the park
A poem about a 4-days I spent in Athens in 2008 – a weekend that lives on in my heart.
As Athens held me
high up above it’s ears
it showed me the world.
Eating honey and doughnuts
I planned my itinerary;
The morning Mediterranean sun
blanching my white, northern skin.
It was exhilerating
wandering the streets -
they were all graffiti and flowers -
swopping smiles with
strangers I already knew.
The derelictness,
the modernity, the anarchy, contained there
all distilled in me;
Until I was at once a teenager, a woman,
a stirred citizen of old.
Quite the humbled student, too.
But on taking a shortcut through the National Garden
I smelt Eucalyptus trees for the first time(!)
I’d found my Eden there.
And nothing I’d seen or heard
or tasted, of Athens until that moment,
could have stirred my heart into such a
furious state of love.
autumnwind
lovely! memory captured beautifully! xoxoxo
Indigo Bloo
Thanks a lot :) Still needs tweaking. I’m so undisciplined. I always publish first and tweak later.
artyfifi
Ah travel stirs the soul! Great writing. x
Indigo Bloo
It stirred mine – I booked a ticket to Crete today :)