In the latest edition of "Village Voice," Boston Public Radio's recurring conversation about how poetry can help us understand the news of the day, poet Richard Blanco shared his favorite poems about traveling — and what going away can teach us about what it means to be home.
"Nothing really evokes questions of home like traveling, because we're always comparing where we are to where we travel to, to what home is and where we come from," Blanco explained.
Blanco said that for him, the drive to travel had always been tied up in the drive to find a place that feels like home.
"It's part of the allure of travel," he said. "It's this idea, still, of trying to find paradise."
However, that's a notion that's evolved for him over the years.
"I realized there's no paradise to be found. Rather, you have to make your own paradise," Blanco said.
Follow along with the poems discussed, in order:
- "We're Not Going To Malta" by Richard Blanco
- "Vacation"by Rita Dove
- "Questions of Travel" by Elizabeth Bishop
- Blanco also shared some Zip Odes submissions from listeners. Want to be featured on a future episode? See below:
Have you been writing Zip Odes, or poems about your neighborhood? It's not too late to send them to Boston Public Radio. Check out the instructions, and send your poems to bpr@wgbh.org with "Zip Odes" in the subject line before July 30. (Please include which town or neighborhood you're writing about.) We'll read our favorites on the air next time Richard Blanco joins us.
Richard Blanco is the nation's fifth inaugural poet and the author, most recently, of the collection "Boundaries."
