The question of holidays by joanie

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The question of holidays

by joanie

Posted: 06 January 2008
Word Count: 38

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Version II
Sometimes home
can serve the purposes
of relaxation,
renewal,
the calm
which too often costs

the Earth.

Version I
Sometimes home
can serve the purposes
of relaxation,
renewal,
the calmness which
too often costs

the Earth.

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James Graham at 20:43 on 07 January 2008 Report this post

Joanie, you deliver the goods every time - in the form of short poems that are peepholes we can look through and see much more. Connecting the title (which is essential - I can hardly think of a poem that needs its title more, or whose title makes such a contribution) with the last line, we glimpse the world of holidays that brings with it days and nights going quietly insane in airports while the backlog of flights is slowly sorted out; or one’s first sight of a hotel room the size of a decent broom cupboard, with its view of the rubbish bins and the air-conditioning ducts. Above all, what we see is the cult of travel, the notion that relaxation and renewal have to be purchased from a travel agent, which ‘costs the Earth’ with a capital E, travel being a major contributor to climate change. Anyway, so often the product doesn't do what it says on the label, giving us not relaxation and renewal but stress and more grey hairs.

Something else about this that I notice is your way (that I’m sure I’ve remarked on before) of making a common phrase come to life. ‘Cost the earth’ - how many times must that be said every day? But in the context of the poem, and with your ‘trademark’ space - in which you metaphorically look us in the eye - the phrase is refreshed.

How about

the peace
that too often costs

the Earth.

?

I like the rhythm of that (the peace/the Earth) but maybe ’peace’ isn’t the word you would want.

James.

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