the dream of travel

9:05 AM Posted by James Owens

22 comments:

James said...

That sure is a dreamy picture. I'm having the same dream. :)

colleen said...

Wonderful. Reminds me of an old postcard.

Marci Rae Johnson said...

Wow, that picture is so beautiful!! Was that from your recent trip?

James Owens said...

James: I'm happy to make you dream for a while ... of possibilities ... of still-undiscovered wonders in this city across the water....

James Owens said...

Colleen: Hmmm ... I hadn't thought of that, but I like the idea :-) Postcards are all about travel, in any case....

James Owens said...

Marci: Is it you? Here, at last!! :-)

No, this isn't from the trip. This is Chicago, looking across the lake from a little west of Michigan City.

Anne said...

It looks like a mysterious Atlantide and the bird wandering around could be a lost soul searching her past. It's a very romantic picture. Thank you, James.
Anne

ARIPI DE FLUTURE said...

foarte frumoasa, exact ca intr-un vis

Roxana said...

"The days and months are the wayfarers of eternity, as are the constantly passing years. Both those who spend their lives plying the waves in boats and those who grow old holding tight to the lead ropes of packhorses make of each day a journey, and of their journey a home. Many of the ancient poets, too, met their end on a journey. From a certain age my own thoughts turned ceaselessly to travel and, like a wisp of cloud carried upon the wind, I wandered the coasts and bays, returning last autumn to my tumbledown hut on the banks of the Sumida, where I cleared away the cobwebs and saw the old year out. But with the mists of spring rising into the sky, my senses once more fell thrall to temptation, and I was filled with a longing to cross the barrier at Shirakawa. The gods of the roadside beckoned to me in such a way that I simply lost interest in everything else."

the beginning of - perhaps - the most well-known japanese text (for japanese themselves, in any case)" Basho's The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which i think you know?
i had to think of it seeing your image, full of such deep and subdued longing, almost japanese at its core...

James Owens said...

Anne: I like your way of saying this. Yes, we are, all of us, searching for something ... that lost moment, lost word ... in pictures, in poems ... something, hard to say, that failed between intention and fact ... long ago, perhaps....

James Owens said...

Aripi de fluture: Mulțumesc pentru cuvintele tale … ai înțeles bine … un vis….

James Owens said...

Roxana: Thank you for bringing this text to the Klage Welt. Yes, I know (and love) this book :-) but it is good to be reminded of it, and to have a trace of it here, where -- I feel -- it fits perfectly :-)

Even this first paragraph evokes so much for me. "The gods of the roadside beckoned to me in such a way that I simply lost interest in everything else." I have felt that. I know those gods :-)

How much of our conversation has been about Japanese things, about a certain relationship to Japanese art and feeling! ... even when we don't seem to be talking about that, it is often there by implication, I think ...

Unknown said...

what is it about travel that lures the human soul?

the fog in your photo brings back distant memories of city life in south africa.

i dream now of travel but cities slip further and further down the list.

i dream too of being a travel writer...

where do you dream of going?

Marion McCready said...

To me it looks like a kind of fairytale kingdom, existing (almost) in the clouds.

James Owens said...

Claire: The urge to travel is very simple, but complicated. We want to expand our lives by confirming the reality of the world beyond the horizon. When our world wears old and tired, we want to be renewed, to be different people by seeking different surroundings.

I dream of going many places … mostly in Europe, but South Africa would be wonderful, too. What I really want is to end up somewhere unanticipated, unforeseeable, beyond any dreams I’ve had, the kind of place where you would never expect to find me, where I would never expect to find myself….

James Owens said...

Sorlil: What a transformation distance can bring. Chicago is one of the most mundane, industrial, practical cities in the world ... thank you for placing it in a fairy tale ....

Marion McCready said...

Funnily enough I dreamed of travelling last night, the same old dream - a mash of Paris and Greece, climbing grassy slopes to ruins and crossing bridges to the Eiffel Tower!

James Owens said...

Sorlil: You dream your own geography, that never existed on any map :-)

myonlyphoto said...

Nice dreamy picture. I am physically dreaming of travel, not just in dreams, lol. Thanks for sharing James, Anna :)

James Owens said...

Anna: Thank you. Happy travels to you, wherever they may lead!

isabella kramer - veredit said...

It is a magic land, the land in the distance, in the dreams and aspirations - this time of year it is always the strongest - it's like me to draw the birds in huge flocks at night over our house heading north to their summer quarters, I hear their calls, and your image is also such a wonderful reputation in the twilight. Thank you dear friend.

James Owens said...

Isabella: The birds are flying over here, too, drawn north by the restlessness in their blood (mergansers, buffleheads, I love their names) -- and I feel such a deep urge to go with them....