Welcome to another Poetics Tuesday, dVerse pub regulars and newcomers! Before we stir your muse, a reminder for you all…

REMINDER! Two chances to join OLN LIVE this month!
Thursday, July 20th from 3 to 4 PM EST
AND Saturday, July 22nd from 10 to 11 AM EST.
You may still link one poem as usual for OLN (Open Link Night) even if you do not attend a live session.

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” – Earl Wilson

 Last week we were back at the pub after a break. Who doesn’t love a vacation? Anything that can break the monotony of a humdrum life is always welcome.

How that vacation is spent, varies from person to person. Are you a micromanager or go-with-the-flow type, are you an inveterate sightseeing kind or one who prefers to laze around, a nature lover or a city lights worshipper, a beach bum or a mountain trekker or maybe someone who likes to spend time with the family running after butterflies in the overgrown backyard!

There was a time when only celebrities jetted off to exotic locales for vacations. These days  people have bucket lists for travels. Some will go to any length to get an Instagram worthy shot. Others seek places still untouched by tourism. The idea of a vacation, for many now, is to do what nobody has done before.

 

 As a child I would always look forward to summer vacation. It meant an overnight train journey to my maternal grandmother’s home, where all my mom’s siblings and cousins would gather with their kids. TV had just come to India and most middle-class households couldn’t afford a set. So we would spend our days bicycling in the narrow lanes of the sleepy town or go to the nearby fields to bathe under a tubewell. Afternoons were spent playing games indoors and waiting for the kulfi wallah! (Indian ice cream). At night, after dinner my uncle would prepare a huge vat of milk mixed with soda and rooh afza, which we all slurped greedily. And then we would all go to the terrace, sleeping on string cots, under mosquito net, watching constellations!

Food, fun and fights for almost a fortnight, then we would all board trains or buses back to our homes, browner than before but brimming with memories, looking forward to making more the next year.

As a mother, at the beginning of each new session in school, I still check the list of holidays in the almanac! The visit to grandparents continues.

For today’s Poetics, I would like you to write about a vacation. Share your vacation experience with us. Whether you decide to write about the most memorable one or the one that turned out to be a nightmare, is up to you. It could be about a family vacation or a solo trip…anything!

For inspiration, I am sharing excerpts from some poems.

To the Sea by Philip Larkin

“To step over the low wall that divides

Road from concrete walk above the shore

Brings sharply back something known long before—

The miniature gaiety of seasides.”

Vacation by Rita Dove

“I love the hour before takeoff,

that stretch of no time, no home

but the gray vinyl seats linked like

unfolding paper dolls.”

Family Vacation by Judith Slater

“I left you at the campsite with greasy pans

and told our children not to follow me.

The dying light had made me desperate.

I broke into a hobbled run, across tracks”

After you have written your poem on your blog, please link it back to this post. Don’t forget Mr.Linky will be open for your links only till 2.00 pm Thursday. Do come back later to  read and enjoy what others have shared.

Remember we have OLN Live this Thursday and Saturday with Sanaa.