A Poetry Post

Because. I love poetry. And you love me. So you have to deal with it.

So. I've been doing a lot of scattered writing while I've been here, snippets during classes or en route to the various places I've travelled, but nothing overly spectacular, save for this one piece I've been working on since Galway. A long time, I know. Most people don't realize what goes in to poetry, they just see the 20 finished lines, and think, "Oh, I could do that in 5 minutes." Yeah, try a couple months of constantly dwelling on those very few lines, trying to make them as perfect as possible. Not so easy. But it finally came together for me while I was in Germany, as did the idea for my undergraduate thesis. It's titled, at least right now, Selected Snapshots of Europe: A Poetry Album, and the idea behind the collection is to collect poetic photographs from the places I go. (And any feedback on this idea, a way to par it down or refine it, is always appreciated. Work is constantly in progress) Once that idea clicked for me, I needed to do something about it. So I emailed my English Honors advisor, got her approval, and then emailed Cecil, who oh so kindly agreed to chair my thesis. I'm on the ball. And I feel really good about this project, and pretty confident on the lead poem, which I'm going to share with you here. Any of my poetically inclined readers, feel free to comment on it constructively, as I'm always looking for good commentary and missing my poetry workshops a lot. Even if you don't know anything about poetry, but like or don't like something, let me know. I think poetry should belong to everyone, and not be locked up in workshops on campus or smoky coffee shops or bars at 3 in the morning. Talk to me, people. If you read this post, you must comment. I'm making it a rule. And if you don't...I won't post any more and you won't have anything to read on breaks between classes or before you go to work or just before you go to bed, whenever you check this. And you won't know what I'm doing. So. Don't post at your own peril. Not that I'm threatening you or anything (Austin, you're exempt, because we've already talked about the poem). So now, a poem.

It’s Worth a Thousand Words


But a picture cannot describe the heat
of a blackberry, plucked
from a bush that pushes
between the cracks of a stacked
stone wall, smashed
against the tongue, seeds
slipping between teeth
and the bitterness of unripe
vermillion juice.

Nor can it echo the honeybee song
soft and easy deep-throat
thrumming as he leaps
daisy aster morning glory
face and wings dusted finely yellow.

It does show off brilliantly
the eye-tightening leaves
of autumn, grainy
red, dirty orange, but if you breathe
deeply just above the glossy
print, you cannot taste
the wet dark weight
of decay and inescapable winter.

That's the lead piece. Hope you enjoyed! And have a good day...I know I will. It's Harry Potter night at Leeson.

A Scotsman clad in kilt left a bar one evening fair.

Okay, so I owe you guys a couple of posts, so here's my Scotland post. Story first. So, because of a booking mistake that was totally my fault (I forgot to even look at the difference between am and pm) Howie and I flew out of Dublin at about 6 in the morning, on Thursday, so we missed a class, but DK was really cool about it. So no worries, other than Howie and I looked like death in the airport. We did share some of his mom's homemade chocolate banana bread, and bought some Bailey's for later, and Taylor gave us a package of Cadbury cookies that we also ate for lunch, so the morning wasn't too bad. We got into Edinburgh around 7.30 in the morning, and it was dreary and grey and didn't look all that inviting, so we were a little bummed. Once we got out of the airport, though, and into the city, the sun came up a little bit more, so things started to look a little more cheerful. Then, we went to the park and these flowers put smiles on both of our faces.



Aren't they so friendly and happy looking? It was impossible for us to be unhappy after we saw those. Still a little (or a lot) tired, but pleased.
This is Edinburgh Castle. It sits on a hill in the middle of the city. And when I say it sits on a hill, that's not really that impressive, because it seemed like we were walking uphill the entire time we were in Scotland, no matter what way we were headed. So we wandered around the city until noon, and then we headed over to our hostel, ditched our bags, picked up a map, and headed to a grocery store, where we bought stuff for a picnic lunch, and then made our way out ot the edge of the city, where the map said there was another giant park. Here's what we found.

This is Howie, reading and relaxing on our mountain. Yeah, we had lunch on a mountain. And then hung out there for a long time. Like five hours. Just drinking and eating and talking and being friends. It was really pretty awesome.

Here's another shot of Picnic Mountain.

This is the view from Picnic Mountain. The building right in front of us is some kind of city building, like a city hall type thing. And then a bunch of the main part of the city. So after we were done with our picnic, Howie and I headed back to the hostel to wait on the rest of our friends. The plan was to do some homework, but I actually ended up falling asleep. When the rest of the kids got there, though, we all got up and went out, had a couple beers, and got silly in the streets. Not because we were drunk, but because it's really really fun to skip down hills.

We took the crowd up to Edinburgh castle the next day and went on the tour. This is Ryan smiling pretty for me :). Actually, it kind of looks more like he's smirking, but. Whatever.

Me and Jes and our cool tourguide. Yeah, I think kilts are sexy. What of it?

View from the wall of Edinbugh castle.

They are called the Knights of Ni! Actually, it's Erin O'Connor and Jes getting into medieval sprirt with some really cool helms.

After we saw the castle and did a little bit of shopping, we took the whole crowd back up to Picnic Mountain, but not for nearly as long as the day before. It was just a cool spot to chill and look at the city. The Leeson kids had a couple of near death experiences on the mountain; Jes tried to scale a bit of it, and slipped and fell a couple feet, but caught herself before it got too bad, and Ryan was walking to the edge of a cliff, and tripped, and only just caught himself. Dangerous stuff.


After lunch, we went and explored some more of the city that Howie and I didn't get to. If you know me at all, you'll know I have kind of a thing for graveyards, so that's why you have some random gravestones in here.

I got a little artsy. It's not super cool, but I like the way Honie and Dan look in this picture. We did a little more walking around and stopped by the grocery again and picked up some stuff for supper and some bottles of wine, and went back to the hostel. The way it was set up, there were seven of us, and we had six bunkbeds in one room, and then another one in another room, but so we had a whole room to ourselves. So we had a picnic again, this time on the top bunks in the room, and we were flipping through channels and found Antique Roadshow, which we managed to make into a drinking game. That's classy, Leeson kids, realy classy. :)

So the next day, we took a train out to Stirling, and made it to Stirling castle; this is a view from one of the back walls.

Here's the wedding party at Stirling! We saw a wedding at Edinburgh too, but I couldn't get a picture of them. But yeah. All the men are in kilts, of course, and the bride was very beautiful.

If you've never heard of the unicorn tapestries, take a break real quick and google them. They were made in Scotland, but they were purchased at some point in time by a Rockefeller, and then when he died, they were given to Cloisters in NY. You should go see them. I have. But anyways, they have a team at Stirling that is weaving another copy of them all by hand. It's a really cool process, although the weavers did kind of look like animals trapped in a zoo.

Here's one of the finished pieces. So pretty, and probably the most famous in the set.

We, em, got a little bit lost. We got on a bus that we thought was taking us to our hotel, but really, it tried to take us to Glasgow, so when we told the lady we were going the wrong way, she dropped us off in the middle of nowhere in the dark. Nice, eh?

After spending our day in Stirling, we headed up to Inverness, which is where Loch Ness is, for the day. This is the Loch. Can you see Nessie? Look carefully on the left side of the picture...I think you can see her.

Yeah, I know I look ridiculous, but. It's cold and rainy and absolutely glorious. This was my favorite day in Scotland, and maybe one of my favorite days of the whole trip over here.

We took the boat through Loch Ness and went to Urqart castle, where Jes and Erin are croched in what I think is a latrine hole. Not sure. It was a little bit cold.

Tiny boat on Loch Ness.

It rained a lot...of course there was a big strong Scottish rainbow!

Heh. When we got back to Edinburgh, we did a little more shopping, and Erin, for some reason, bought four of the same scarf, but while we were sitting outside, she got a little cold. And put them all on.

Okay, there's Scotland, bascially. But I need a nap. I'll do Germany soon, and maybe a poetry post, if you think you'd enjoy that. Let me know!

Hi, my name is Erin...

and I'm a book addict. That is all I can tell you.

After college night last night, and sleepover time with Jes, I spent a lovely afternoon with Howie. We wandered the city in a very leisurely way, and I finally managed to not feel like a tourist today. I did, however, eat a ridiculous amount of food with Howie. We split a family bundle, which contains more food than I'm going to mention here, but let's just say...I haven't eaten anything else today, and I'm glad.

But we also spent some time shopping; he bought pants and I got a sweatershirt, and we didn't pay but 15 euro between the two of us. Show me a store in the states where you can get jeans and a hoodie for under 20 dollars. We also tried on crazy European shoes and laughed at tee shirts and crazy man underwear. Bought some jewlery from a street vendor which is probably going to turn Howie's finger green, and wandered into a soap store, under the mistaken impression that it was a candy store. A very nice lady showed some bath bars to us, and we walked around and smelled things and left the store with the taste of soap on our teeth.

And then we went to the bookstore. The sick thing is, Howie is just as much of a book addict as I am...so we were there for two hours. Yeah, that's right. So we were just following each other around, pointing out books that we've read to the other one, constantly saying, "Oh, you'd really like that, you should pick it up sometime soon." And we probably could have each spent...hundreds of euro on books today. I've got to be the only person you all know who, when checking out at the bookstore, makes recommendations to the cashier. That's got to just be me.

But I had a good day with Howie, and lots of talking and laughing and fun times happened.

Things I Miss

This isn't a sad, oh I'm so homesick, post, but really, just things that I miss, besides my family and my friends, because you all know that I miss you gobs.
* Kool-aid
*Steelers and Colts games
*Movie nights with the boys
*Shopping with Jill
*Taco Bell
*The park
*Murphy
*Hugs and kisses
*Feeling academic
*All of my books
*24
*Delivery pizza
*Ranch dressing
*Poetry workshops
*Video games
*My desk
*Big parties
*Light beer
*Chocolate syrup
*Orange juice without bits
*Lifting weights
*Drying my clothes
*Tacking things up on my walls
*Snuggling
*Hide and Seek
*Tickling
*Grape jelly
*The Christmas lights on our porch
*College basketball updates from Mike and Christy
*Practicing hapkido with Michael
*Arguing with Dean
*Nuzzles with Matt
*Talking on the phone
*Driving my little car
*Dressing up
*Going to class in pajamas
*The way the leaves change at home

That's not all. But that's what's on my mind this morning. Now, I'm off for shopping with Howie and Taylor.

Welcome in Brussel!!!!!

Okay, I finally have fifteen seconds to sit down and finish something, so here comes the post about Brussels. The title line is something a crazy waiter said to us on our second to last night here. So our flight left at....6.10 in the am. And because it was the night right after Howie's birthday, we got about an hour of sleep before we left. But we did have fun sleepover time with Ryan and Howie...Howie and Jes talked about long distance relationships, pros and cons. Ryan and I discussed Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and Star Wars. Yeah, it's a whole big clan of geeky kids over here. But anyways. On to pictures and the weekend.


This is me and Jes standing outside Leeson with all of our bags at a ridiculous time in the morning. We look dirty and pale and very happy. That, by the way, is my sweater I bought from the Aran Islands and wear at least 3 times a week, because it's so warm. I was struck by this picture, mostly because it's the first picture I've ever seen of myself where I don't really look like a kid. I think I look kind of like a grown up...something about my face. A little unsettling and very thought-provoking. And I need a haircut in a bad way. Oh, and in the taxi on the way there, Erin O'Connor looked at me and said, "Belgium is on the euro, right?" (they are). And I looked back at her and said, "Um, what language do they speak?" (Dutch and French). Just to give you an idea on how much research we didn't do before we went.

So we got into Belgium, and took a bus to the metro station, but we didn't feel like figuring out the metro right then, so we took a taxi out to our hotel and dropped our bags. Turns out the metro ran pretty much right to our hotel, so we went back to the station, bought some tickets and headed back into the centre of the city. Where we found these delectable waffles. Just look at them. A note on public transportation in Belgium...you buy the tickets yourself and you scan them yourself before you get on the metro. Once we realized that, we didn't pay for tickets any more. But look at those waffles!!!!!!! That one in the middle on the front...syrup is dripping gently off it, into a warm and sticky puddle on the ground. So so so so so tasty.

This is Team Belgium with their first waffles. The final waffle count for the weekend was 21...and 3 ice cream cones. We're fat kids.

This is Sint Katelijne, the first cathedral we saw when we got there, and it's big and Gothic and cool.

This is Mannekin Pis, and it's a statue of a little peeing boy. There are two different stories surrounding the legend of the mannekin. One is that Brussles caught on fire, and he peed and put it out, and the other, more likely, story is that a wealthy shopkeeper lost his son in a crowd and he found the boy four or five days later, standing on a street corner, peeing. I'm not sure why this little guy is such a big attraction, but there he is.

The first beers of Belgium. We had them at a respectable time, something like 4.30 in the afternoon. Dan had the white one on the far left, and it's called Steendonk, Erin had the dark one in the middle, called Maredsous #8, and I had the pretty pink one on the end. It's called Kriek, and it's a beer made from cherries. Very tasty. The beer count from the weekend was a little ridiculous, but between the four of us, we managed to try 30 or so different kinds of beer. Belgium was amazing, did I mention that?

Sint Mikel's, another big amazing Gothic cathedral. This was one our landmarks for the weekend, and I'm pretty sure Dan took about 500 pictures of it. The picture doesn't even do justice to the way it stuck out above everything, towering over the streets around it. It's on a hill, sort of, in the middle of town, and it's just fantastic. Let's go inside.

I just took a couple on the inside, because I don't feel so comfortable disrupting people, being touristy while they're trying to pray. And even though I'm not Catholic, I lit a candle and said a prayer for Josh. Because. Let's face it...prayers never hurt anyone.

Here's a random picture of the metro station that we spent a lot of time in. Kind of looks like New York.

This is my shoe. My left shoe. I decided it would be a good idea to write around the bottom edges the countries that my Chucks travel to. I did tack USA on the front of Ireland, and now Scotland is on there too. England is next.

Erin and Dan getting rowdy on the metro. I don't remember why they decided to kill each other. But this is on the way home from our mini pub crawl.

Jes and I are lovers, not fighters.

So the next day we hopped on the train for 3 euro and went to Brugges (say it brooj). And this is a tower covered in ivy. Just chilling in the middle of town. Yeah, architecture in Europe pretty much rocks.

Me on a bridge over the gorgeous canal in Brugges. There were little boats that went by and everything. We had lunch in a garden of an art gallery, with three of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I don't know where the fourth one was. But then we went into the art gallery for a little while and wandered around, basically just explored the city. Had a couple beers and went shopping. I own the most ridiculous ring in the universe. It's roughly the size of a head of lettuce and kind of looks like one. But I love it.

This was just too cool a picture to pass up. The store was called Temple of Beer. And this isn't even half of the shelves on the back wall. That's all that would fit in the picture.

This is a giant cathedral in...where did we go...Gent. That's where this is. After we left Brugges we went to Gent for supper and some more picture taking. We had supper at this place called Old Louie's, and it was owned by some ladies from New Orleans, originally, and they played jazz music and made really good spaghetti. But they charged us for water.

It rained while we were in Gent, so here's the rainbow.

Erin O'Connor got a little cold when it started raining, so I donated my scarf to her, Jes gave up her coat, and she's sporting Dan's hat. Doesn't she look warm?

So the next day...Sunday...we hop on the train again and go to Waterloo, which was really...well, it was actually a little disappointing. You'd think for all that happened there, the museums would be a little bit better. Well, two of them were really cool. The rest were...eh. But before we went up to the monument for the Dutch prince who was wounded in the battle, this lady attacked Jes and painted a bird on her face. She looked pretty hot.

Here's some little model guys doing battle in one of the museums. I cheered for Napolean, but he still lost. Jerk.
Here's the view from the top of Lion Mountain, which is the monument to the Dutch prince I was telling you about. We had lunch there. With the Lion. Rawr.

And there's the lion. It took 226 very steep stairs on a very narrow stairway to get up there. And we all know how I am with vertigo. But I didn't throw up or even get very dizzy on the way down, so go Erin!

Here's Dan taking on Jes and Erin in a pistol duel in the giftshop. Dan claims he won, but I didn't see a clear winner.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get all of this up, but really, my week was two days long last week...I didn't even have time to unpack from Belgium before I was jetting off to Scotland, which I will post about as soon as I get my pictures downloaded.

And again. I am trying to keep you guys updated, but I can't take pictures of us singing Irish songs as we rode the metro home, or how much we laughed, or the way that the cobblestones were slick and dark in the rain or the smell of waffles and fries and mussels all mixed together in the air. That's what it's really about, the friends and the experiences and all of us mashed in one bed and sneaking around the hotel because we're poor college kids. It's fun, and there's definitely a lot of Leeson Love.

First, a picture post

So, I've been promising pictures, and here they are. I'll post about Belgium posthaste. First...here's my apt!


Yeah, it's dark in the living room. Mostly because all our lightbulbs blew and we haven't replaced them yet. Because Padraig hates us. Okay, he doesn't really hate us, be he's definitely annoyed by us. He left us a formal warning 'cause we dont' like to clean. :)

This is where I shower. It's pretty tiny, so I don't miss my Bloomington bathroom so much :).

And this is where Steph and I sleep. Mine's the bed with the belt on it. Of course, now it's buried under clothes because we have about ZERO storage space. And I"m messy, but whatever.

And here's some pictures with people in them. Mostly me. Because that's who you miss. But some of my fantastic Leeson friends as well.

This is me and Taylor trying to look thoughtful, and Casey and Steph looking really really excited. And we're not even drunk in this picture. Look how full our beers are! Looks like me and Casey and Taylor are having Guinness and Steph is having a Bulmer's, which is this strange apple cider sort of thing. Only with alcohol. Like apple beer. But not. I'm not sure, but it's tasty.

MID-WEST REPRESENT! Me (Indiana) Jess (Illinois) Ryan (Missouri) and Casey (Iowa) showing our mid-west pride on Casey's 21st. That's why she looks so scary. She's scary drunk. PS...look how cute my skirt is! As a side note, this is second picture we took, because Jess totally made the first one say M M M W. Silly girl.

Erin and Taylor doing cute girly sober things before going out. Oh, and Padraig came over and asked us if we were putting on our "hoochie shoes". Whatever that means. He's weird.

Erin and Taylor being ridiculous and drunk. I think she's reading a pretend book, and I'm just staring at Erin O'Connor while she takes the picture. No idea. The transition from last picture to this one...about 20 minutes.

This is me and Howie, founding members of the IES Dublin glasses club. We're the only real members too, because the other kids only wear glasses sometimes. We took this picture out at Flanery's, which is where we went for Casey's birthday. Picture 11 drunk Americans in the middle of a crowded pub just past midnight singing Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" at the top of their lungs, and you've got us. There were definitely some people staring.

Taylor and Erin were jealous of the midwestern kid pic, so they rocked out the East Coast.

Drink, Casey, drink!!!!!! This was her last beer, before we went out...and had a lot more. We got her in a cab and safely tucked into bed, so no worries. On to the post about Belgium!