November is a good time to travel, as the Pacific Northwest brings cool days filled with rain I decided going to South America late in the year seemed like a great plan.   The great idea started as much as 8 months ago, and since that time it has taken shape and evolved.  It began as a trip to Argentina, and then Peru made sense as a stop off on the way.  It’s was only on learning more about the geography of South America that I found that Uruguay is close by ferry to Beunos Aires, so I will be heading there too.  The journey begins.

Having not been to South America before, it is great to finally go and see this continent.  An early morning ferry ride left home and Bainbridge Island crazy early, and was followed by a couple of hour’s flight to Los Angeles.  From LAX it is off to Lima and warmer climes.  I am flying with LATAM Airlines, which is the national airline of Chile.  I have to say from experience it is a thoroughly agreeable airline that I would recommend highly.

 

Being on a plane gave me the impetus, encouragement and motivation to write more poetry; 35,000 feet is so agreeable to writing, so as well as these poems I also wrote several more pages in my ongoing book “The Amazing Adventures of Sheepy McTavish”.  It is slow progress on the book, but it is moving forwards.

On the poetry front I wrote “One More Walk Around the Dancefloor’, which is a poem about depression, not exactly a thrill subject on the cusp of an exploring flight and happy vacation, but a poem about a subject that seems to encroach on many lives in recent times.  Soccer player Clarke Carlisle is much written about as being a long-time sufferer, much of his challenges on the end of him finishing a high profile professional soccer playing career.  I have a family member that has also walked down similar paths and is working her way through it, and it is inspiring to see her meet those struggles, and find strength in what lies ahead.  A female player that I used to coach was not quite so strong to find a way through, and recently she sadly took her own life.  This poem is dedicated to those people, and I hope more are able to find the strength and perseverance to come out the other side.

One More Walk Around the Dancefloor 

When days arrive and you see their troubled eyes
Be that friend that walks by their side,
Their demons may dance on the dance floor,
If depression is in town,
It’s friends that they need to help it recede,

The song says suicide is painless,
That’s not what I see.
So just take one more walk around the dance floor,
To find friends whose dark thoughts need to be waved on goodbye.

Try spotting the one on the dance floor
With guilt and no self-esteem,
You may save someone’s life,
By noticing that more than sad teen.

Depression and destruction and darkness inside,
Scars on the mind and therefore,
Look closer, as you take that one last walk around that dance floor.

 

From that dark but meaningful poem, I was led down “Life’s Pathway’, hopefully something that we all can find some time to travel down…

Life’s Pathway

Look too closely at somebody else,
Smile inside and outside yourself,
Live each minute of the sun’s daylight,
Love the night.

Nothing is broken if you look at it right
Your hopes don’t go through you,
They come to you,
And I hope they come back unbroken.

It isn’t truthfulness or youthfulness
That sets the world turning,
It was remedy and make believe,
And it follows you now.

Take stock of life
Be nice,
Hashtag happy,
Follow people that you like,
Enjoy getting thjngs right.
Know why friends like you,
Do it more.

Over the next few weeks there will be more blogs about the trip and what I find interesting, funny, delicious and extraordinary about the new places that I visit.  Photos too of course, because they are what brings everything to life, and I am under strict instructions in trying to photograph some people – I think I heard they have them in South America 🙂