Travel Writing
Beth Lechleitner, Veronica Patterson
I have been thinking a lot lately about writing and travel, probably because I am traveling and I'm trying to write also. I brought with me Lavinia Spalding's Traveling Away (Laviniaspalding.com) which gives lots of tips and tricks for travel journaling. And of course that's immediately what comes to mind when we put travel and writing together. But there's no reason that travel writing can't be poetry!
Of course the Japanese invented a special form for travel writing called the Haibun. It is a prosimetric, combining a short prose piece which focuses on an event or place and a haiku, which intensifies what is described in the prose.
Probably my favorite suggestion from Spalding frees you from the bondage of the “What I did today” entry. She suggests that you focus on 1 or 2 particular observations rather than re-walking every step you took. Want to skip a day? Do it! (But don’t forget to come back!)
For me, probably the biggest challenge of travel writing is finding the time to do it, making the trade off between writing and accumulating more experiences to write about. If I settle for the waterfalls I saw in the morning, I will miss the ones I could have seen in the afternoon? And of course what you didn't see is always better than what you did.
So I've had to come to terms with taking what I deserve: some downtime to write. No, I shouldn't call it downtime because it's very important: taking the travel experience to another level. So maybe, Writing-it-up time.
Here are 2 little pieces I set aside time to write up, small but significant moments.
Rituals
Gilded Buddha
Sitting Buddha
Reclining Buddha
Walking Buddha
Pensive
Content
Angry Buddha
Benevolent Buddha
Bearded
Plastered
Twin
Fiery
Pop up
Standing
Head cracked
Beehive Buddha
Future
Medicine
Meditative
Jade
Baby
Sparkly
No tattoo Buddha
Missing Buddha
Sleeping Buddha
Mara Buddha
But nowhere:
Smoking Buddha
Yet, inside a temple where we comply without shoes, a saffron-robed monk sits cross-legged slightly apart from two others, and pulls meditative puffs.
***************
Transcendence
Plumeria trees wall the pond:
White blossoms with golden centers
Suddenly take flight, sprout beaks:
Egret rookery.
*****************
So, tap into your traveling spirit and use your next trip as a prompt, even if it's just a journey downtown.
–Beth Lechleitner, traveling in Southeast Asia
2025-2027 Veronica Patterson Loveland Poet Laureate
Of course the Japanese invented a special form for travel writing called the Haibun. It is a prosimetric, combining a short prose piece which focuses on an event or place and a haiku, which intensifies what is described in the prose.
Probably my favorite suggestion from Spalding frees you from the bondage of the “What I did today” entry. She suggests that you focus on 1 or 2 particular observations rather than re-walking every step you took. Want to skip a day? Do it! (But don’t forget to come back!)
For me, probably the biggest challenge of travel writing is finding the time to do it, making the trade off between writing and accumulating more experiences to write about. If I settle for the waterfalls I saw in the morning, I will miss the ones I could have seen in the afternoon? And of course what you didn't see is always better than what you did.
So I've had to come to terms with taking what I deserve: some downtime to write. No, I shouldn't call it downtime because it's very important: taking the travel experience to another level. So maybe, Writing-it-up time.
Here are 2 little pieces I set aside time to write up, small but significant moments.
Rituals
Gilded Buddha
Sitting Buddha
Reclining Buddha
Walking Buddha
Pensive
Content
Angry Buddha
Benevolent Buddha
Bearded
Plastered
Twin
Fiery
Pop up
Standing
Head cracked
Beehive Buddha
Future
Medicine
Meditative
Jade
Baby
Sparkly
No tattoo Buddha
Missing Buddha
Sleeping Buddha
Mara Buddha
But nowhere:
Smoking Buddha
Yet, inside a temple where we comply without shoes, a saffron-robed monk sits cross-legged slightly apart from two others, and pulls meditative puffs.
***************
Transcendence
Plumeria trees wall the pond:
White blossoms with golden centers
Suddenly take flight, sprout beaks:
Egret rookery.
*****************
So, tap into your traveling spirit and use your next trip as a prompt, even if it's just a journey downtown.
–Beth Lechleitner, traveling in Southeast Asia
2025-2027 Veronica Patterson Loveland Poet Laureate