Wanderlust

I’ve been thinking about travel.

Usually these days I travel more for work than for pleasure but I have two trips coming up in the next few months and one of them has a holiday component which I am very much looking forward to.

I like holidays which put me close to nature. My favourite place is by an ocean or the sea, but I’ve been known to seek out lakes and forests too. Blame it on living in suburbia and working in the city. There are days when you tire of the harshness of glass and prefer to see the sun reflect off water.

The quiet of a retreat from the usual is also usually conducive to creativity (although creativity can often be scuppered if the quiet is also conducive to afternoon naps...). I recently heard someone mention the idea that creativity is ‘the fifth element’ and a Japanese concept called ‘ku’ or ‘sora’ which also translates into the concept of ‘void’. Sometimes you need the emptiness so that it can fill up with ideas. Sometimes you just need to be away.

The art in this post is a dreamscape. Or not quite a dreamscape as I was awake when I imagined it. I was staring at my bedroom ceiling (thanks, my friend Insomnia) lulling myself with thoughts of the kind of place where I would really like to be and this was the result. The verse came later and the title looks pretentious but there really was no other title that I wanted.

I hope that this beach exists somewhere on my travels. 

空 Kū

I long for a deserted beach

Where I can build a fire

Then watch the waves through blazing spires

For hour after hour.

A hinter chill upon my back

The burning heat before.

The sudden sting of salted air

That rushes up the shore.

A clutch of sand falls through my hand -

An hourglass of bone,

A sift of time and nacre shards,

A history in stone.

Increasing stars depict the past

As day makes way for night,

While curling flames from flotsam fuel

Provide the present light.

The elements, five elements,

Allow this scene to be:

The sand, the air, the sea, the fire - 

The fifth resides in me.