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Counting Cats
by
Patricia Williams


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Travel’s a fool’s paradise, so said Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A fool thinks he’ll alter his life with a trip to Paris, Bangkok
or other exotic else, but finds, when op’ning his luggage,
he’s still brought along  himself.
 
A warning to trekkers about far-off travel, comes from
Henry David Thoreau: It’s not worth the while, to go
'round the world, to count cats in Zanzibar . . .
most meaningful journeys occur without ever leaving home;
no need to change the landscape, better instead, he said,
to change the soul.
 

© by Patricia Williams.
Used with the author’s permission.

 


Patricia Williams and her husband live in central Wisconsin amid farm fields and abundant wildlife. She began writing poetry after retiring from 32 years of teaching Art and Design. Poetry, she feels, is painting with words, both using the same design principles. Patricia's work appears in many journals and anthologies, and she is the author of The Port Side of Shadows, a poetry chapbook about her travels, and Midwest Medley: Places & People, Wild Things & Weather, which received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her most recent book is Rejection to Acceptance: 57 Poems That Finally Made It, a collection of poems with commentary. All of the poems in the book were eventually published, but were initially rejected--three, four, even five times. "It's the old theme of ...If at first you don't succeed," says Patricia. "I am a determined (stubborn!) person."

         



Post New Comment:
jtmilford:
Very true and very well stated. I leave home to not count cats.(all five)
Posted 05/13/2014 08:05 PM
Jo:
Exactly. So glad you put these words into your poem.
Posted 05/13/2014 02:13 PM
hujsaked@aol.com:
Nicely expressed. And yet, one can travel everywhere, in the pages of a book, before the fireplace. Ed Hujsak
Posted 05/13/2014 12:35 PM
Verse lover:
How true - Thanks for penning it. If you write in sonnet form, I invite you to check out grsf.org/sonnet
Posted 05/13/2014 11:27 AM
paradea:
I like this a lot!!
Posted 05/13/2014 09:06 AM
Cindy:
yes yes yes
Posted 05/13/2014 08:37 AM
Katrina:
Great!
Posted 05/13/2014 07:58 AM
Gary Busha:
No matter where you go, dogs run barefoot. But travel can benefit one, I guess. I liked this one.
Posted 05/13/2014 06:07 AM
erinsnana:
I love this! I usually travel alone, and I've been to Paris three times over the years. But, she is right: I open my suitcase and there I am, croissants notwithstanding!
Posted 05/13/2014 03:35 AM
Dorcas:
Absolutely wonderful. My feelings exactly. I play hermitage frequently.
Posted 05/12/2014 11:12 PM


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