It’s Poetry Friday! Our host this week is Bridget from Wee Words for Wee Ones. Please join her birthday celebration as she contemplates the need for happiness in the world as so many are suffering right now. Thanks for hosting Bridget!
Next week, you’ll find Poetry Friday here, on The Apples in My Orchard, where we’ll continue a birthday-happy theme – marking a milestone in my own life. I agree we Bridget that we still need to embrace the emotion of happiness even though so much that we see is scary and sad.
Today, I continue with the Introduction to Europe through my Acrostic Poetry featuring places we traveled on our cruise through the heart of Europe on the Danube, Main, and Rhine Rivers.
If you missed last week’s post, I wrote about Budapest, Vienna, and Passau. Three countries were covered there – Hungary, Austria, and Germany. Today, we continue our tour with an acrostic poem featuring Melk Abbey in Austria and the cities of Nuremberg and Bamburg in Germany.
There is so much history to the places we traveled, and much of it was scary, evil history that humans inflict on each other – much the same as what is happening now in other parts of the world. Why we cannot learn from our past mistakes is a question I’ve pondered often of late.
Melk Abbey - Austria Majestic buildings collude in Elaborate art and wealth Linger to see the solitude Kinship of monks Almost empty for years But a few remained Buttressed by hills and gardens Enter to feel the past Yellow gold everywhere
© Draft, Carol Labuzzetta, 2023
American Writer
Nuremburg - Germany Never escaping the past Undulating walls surround Reminders of atrocities Evil and propaganda Maximized location Bringing masses Ending the war Retribution through trials Grateful for a future © Draft, Carol Labuzzetta, 2023 American Writer
Bamberg - Germany
Bamberg
Abounds with
Mostly
Bavarian charm
Excelling at
Riches of
Gone by Princes
© Carol Labuzzetta, 2023
American Writer
There are a few more places to go. I hope to write an acrostic poem for each place we visited, if only for my own future enjoyment and reminiscing.
Anthology Update:
The information you need to know about the ekphrastic nature poetry anthology I am working on is that submissions close on November 1st.
Please consider submitting. If you have questions, please let me know at my email: labcar81@gmail.com or by using the contact page on this blog.
The details can be found here:
The information you might like to know is that I’ve already accepted 30 poems from 15 authors, submitting from three countries! These numbers do not include some of my own ekphrastic nature poetry which will be included in the book as well.
With less than two weeks to go, time is running short! Submit today!
The Apples in My Orchard 
I did miss last week, have only been to German & Austria, yes, some with horrid history but one day we came upon a cooking school in a park, showing off their favorite dishes. That was fun! I love that you’re writing poems about some things in your trip, Carol, and this seemingly sly comment at the end of that final poem: “Excelling at/Riches of/Gone by Princes.” Indeed!
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Hi Linda! Thanks for visiting and your comments! The acrostics have been a fun and brief way to remember our trip. Already, it’s blending all together!
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Carol, I love reading about your travels. You must have learned so much. What a range of experiences!
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Carol, your poems bring me back to Hallstatt, Austria–where we looked at the village’s WWII memorial and felt the love there. And thought about how those boys died as Nazi soldiers. We are all so much the same inside, and yet we end up on opposite sides of things, over and over.
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Thank you for these images and words Carol – I feel like I am travelling with you. the contrasts you saw and felt are so like the contrasts we are all experiencing at the moment. We have to find joy or hope at least, in amongst the fear and worry.
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Thanks for continuing the acrostic tour of Europe! So fun!
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What a fun way to capture your Europe memories in acrostic poems! Thank you, Carol.
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What a great idea to write an acrostic for each place you visited, Carol! “Never escaping the past” really says it all…
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I’m really enjoying your acrostics and photos,Carol! What an amazing trip!
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Carol, this week was another hectic week. My husband got sick-not COVID or the flu but bad enough to have him sleep most of the week. Your travels has been a photo tour through Europe. I have enjoyed all your work. Like Linda B, I love these thoughts: Excelling at/Riches of/Gone by Princes.” Nuremburg brings thoughts of the War. Although I did not live through this evil period, I was haunted by the thoughts as I grew into teenage years.
I am going to catch up and write my poems for submissions. I hope you understand.
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It’s all good, Carol! I do understand. Thanks for your kind words about the acrostics. Nuremberg was almost completely destroyed in the war. It’s so sad but lovely now. It’s good (I think) there are still reminders of the past.
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What fabulous photos! I have never been to this part of the world but would love this tour. It’s important, isn’t it, to see the immense buildings created by Nazis and to ponder why the world keeps repeating things that should never be repeated. It’s heartbreaking. Thanks, Carol.
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