The Wexas Travel Magazine Vol 45 » No 1 » 2015 £6.95 Editorialissue 1 / 2015 PLACES
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the wexas travel magazine vol 45 » no 1 » 2015 £6.95 editorialissue 1 / 2015 PLACES OF POETRYIt’s a fine tradition, the poetry of a place as well as poetry can, and place, and an ancient one. In his one of the most visually striking book Walking Home, Armitage features in this issue is a sultry AS I FINISHED WRITING UP MY refers to Homer’s epic poem, the photo essay about tango in the interview with Simon Armitage Odyssey, as one of the greatest Colombian city of Medellín, which for this issue, my mind was works of western literature, and has the strongest tango culture filled with a strong memory of one that ‘could also be described outside of Argentina. Medellín is an evening spent by the South as one of the first pieces of travel also gaining a reputation as the Bank. It’s a happy one. There writing.’ And although we don’t ‘world capital of poetry’ – declared were hundreds of us out there, Amy Sohanpaul run pieces written entirely in as such by the many poets that waiting for some helicopters considers the verse in Traveller – I’m thinking congregate there annually for to whirr into view. They arrived merits of verse now perhaps we should – we do The International Poetry Festival with the sunset, looking slightly over prose like it when a feature doesn’t use of Medellín. The festival was born sinister as helicopters of a certain ‘the language of information’ in 1991, when Medellín was the size sometimes do, ominous and instead conveys the essence most violent city in the world. harbingers. of a place. Articles that aren’t The festival was conceived as And then, in this part of London, full of pointers about the best a form of cultural resistance, which was so heavily bombed place to eat, or featuring top ten a collective voice for peace, and during the Second World War, a tips, but tell us, through lyrical as words can change, as well different sort of bombardment language what a place feels like, as describe, atmosphere, it has fell from the noisy sky, a hundred sharing with us something of a helped to transform the city into a thousand poems in the shape of destination’s inner truth, are the calmer place, in a country that can bookmarks, swirling like confetti ones that make me happiest when still be tumultuous. over our heads. They felt like they arrive. Kashmir too, away from its a benediction of sorts, and all Fergal Keane’s pieces are the troubled border, harbours places around us, people were rioting, epitome of this, and that’s just of peace and astounding beauty, in the best way, laughing, some one of the reasons we’re all so a landscape that remains dreamy enough to cry, everyone jumping, delighted that he has agreed to and steeped in myth, and Simon running, arms stretched to catch join Traveller’s Honorary Editorial Urwin’s story about traditional them as they hurried and flurried Board, it is a privilege to welcome healers reflects a gentle side down to earth. Walking over a him. More often than not, Fergal’s of this magnificent mountain bridge some time later, when we pieces will feature a short poem region. Mountains loom large thought it was all over and done, – I remember one from years ago, in this issue as it happens – the a few more fell into our path out Michael Longley’s succinct and Atlas Range, the Julian Alps in of nowhere, they must have been perfect ode: Slovenia, a piece on the mighty hovering for some time, and I have Matterhorn. Between them, they them to this day, never far from The Weather in Japan have inspired any amount of the desk. poetry through the ages, much of The event, organised by Chilean Makes bead curtains of it as lofty as the peaks it celebrates. arts collective Casagrande, the rain, But I found myself turning instead marked the launch of Poetry Of the mist a paper screen. to a favourite by Simon Armitage, Parnassus, a global gathering Map Reference, which opens with of poets during the London There’s a poem in Fergal’s latest characteristic understatement: Olympics, the brainchild of Simon offering too, about childhood Armitage. When we met he told winters in Ireland, a poem written Not that it was the first peak in me that he felt that poetry was by his uncle and celebrated the range, particularly good at expressing playwright John B. Keane; and or the furthest. place, “What a place feels to you coincidentally, another article, It didn’t have the swankiest as an individual; and I think when Alex Robinson’s piece on Thailand, name it talks about locations, it’s very begins with a poetic reverie and it wasn’t the highest even, good at creating the atmosphere. and ends with a poem, so all is or the finest… The language of poetry is not dreamlike and slightly surreal necessarily the language of in southern Thailand from start It might not even be about information… but in terms of to finish. a mountain at all, but in the invoking the spirit of a place, it’s The best photographs can end, something bigger, an particularly good.” conjure up the atmosphere of inner landscape. vol 45• no1 • 2015 traveller 3 HONORARY EDITORIAL BOARD Traveller is Britain’s original magazine for intelligent Kate Adie obe travel. Since 1970 it has reported on the real experience is a distinguished bbc foreign correspondent who has spent 30 years reporting from the world’s frontlines. of travelling the world, and many of today’s leading explorers and adventurers are on the Editorial Board. Publisher Professor David Bellamy obe frgs phd f ibiol f ls and Chairman is one of the world’s leading conservationists, an icon Traveller can be accessed at www.traveller.org.uk, which Ian M Wilson of wildlife television, and founder of the Conservation also displays contributors’ guidelines. Traveller is distrib- ma dphil Foundation. uted to the members of wexas travel. (oxon) frgs Colonel John Blashford-Snell obe frsgs frai is Britain’s best-known expedition leader and the founder of Operations Raleigh and Drake for young people. Editor Dr Jean-Michel Cousteau Amy Sohanpaul is a noted marine scientist and successor to the mantle of his father, the late Jacques Cousteau. Traveller is produced by Fifth Floor Publishing for Contributing wexas travel, Dorset House, Editors William Dalrymple ma fras frgs frsl Stamford Street, London, se1 9nt, uk Jonathan Lorie is one of Britain’s finest travel writers, winner of many prizes and an expert on India and the Muslim world. Web www.traveller.org.uk Mark Reynolds Sir Ranulph Fiennes bt obe dsc Editorial enquiries can be emailed Staff Writer is a distinguished adventurer and expedition leader, respon- to [email protected] Guy Everton sible for the world’s first pole-to-pole journey. Tel 020 7838 5998 Robin Hanbury-Tenison obe dl ma frgs Design is a pioneering champion of rainforests and tribal peoples, Kelly Al-Saleh and the President of Survival International. Fergal Keane obe is a bbc special correspondent who reported from South Africa for many years, and an acclaimed author. 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