The Apples in My Orchard

At the risk of being repetitive, I am sharing some photos of our trip to Europe. It was 15 days of history, enrichment, and enjoyment. The photographs I was able to capture will keep my thoughts and feelings alive for a long while.

Inspired today by our host, Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core, and her beautiful acrostic poem, I tried a few of my own. These are really rough but already contain some of my key memories of the places we visited and spent time.

Introduction to Europe: Acrostic City Poems

Vienna is the gateway

VIENNA

Vienna is the gateway
Inspiring with art and 
Elegance
Not to be missed or 
Neglected, the zoo.
Animals await there for you.


BUDAPEST

Budapest stunned with lights 
Under bridges strong with age
Darkness falls on the Danube
A market full of wares to buy and 
Paprika to try
Exceptional buildings
Stunning old churches
Testament of time.

PASSAU

Passau closed on the Holy Day
A string of cobbled streets led the way
Salt is the history here
Sweets like Gingerbread 
Attract with sway
Uniquely built where three rivers meet.

Draft, Carol Labuzzetta, 2023
American Writer

On our recent vacation to Europe we visited five countries and many cities over two weeks. We started in in Budapest, moved on to Vienna and Melk in Austria, then Passau, Nuremburg, Bamberg, Regensburg, and Wertheim, Wurzburg, Koblenz, Cologne, Amsterdam, and Kinderdijk.

Ekphrastic Poetry Nature Anthology Submissions Update

I wanted to thank you all for your patience with the status of your submissions to the ekphrastic nature poem anthology. If you don’t already know the status of your submissions, you will before the weekend is over. I am slowly working my way through them and apologize for the delay. I thought I’d have more time on the trip to let you know your submission status, but we were busy sightseeing!

Also, I sincerely appreciate every comment I get on this blog and especially from each of my Poetry Friday friends. I am not the best at replying right away and that was certainly the case this past week with the comments I received. I will reply – know that I am working on it. Thanks for your patience!

Likewise, release paperwork will be forthcoming soon. Those documents will be sent via email to the address you listed in your registration on my website with your poems.

Please continue to submit! If you have not already, there is still time. Submissions close November 1st. Thank you to all of you who are trusting me to publish your work! I truly appreciate you and your talents!

Lastly, thanks to Denise Krebs, who sent me this reusable market bag this summer during our poetry swap. I took it to Europe and used it – here I am in Koblenz with the bag (and some goodies inside.) I took one more gift with me to Europe from a Poetry Friday friend. I’ll write about that in the future.