Live Encounters Poetry & Writing February 2026.
Memories of Travel, poem by Paul Williamson.
Memories of Travel
Sydney’s grime and familiar striving
Tokyo with business and blossoms
Bali hoping for sunny peace
Bangkok’s temples and floating shops
Djakarta full of living
Seoul with kimchi and inner strength
Hong Kong busy with commerce
Mumbai’s crowded history
Washington filled by intrigue
Doha flush with oil money
Ottawa in frozen hope
Mexico’s patterned colour
Santiago under clouded Andes
Barcelona’s mystic art
Lisbon with sea swept history
Dublin living its culture
Rome a seed of God
Paris with vistas of art
London where my children were born.
Balancing
When young we walked low wooden fences
arms out for balance
fell off onto fresh grass
rolled and laughed
climbed up again
wanting only to reach
the next turn.
Now we tread stone walls
with our chosen company
balancing, looking
before each careful step
trying not to slip.
When another wall meets ours
we greet each other hopeful.
A Goodbye
Pausing her hunt to hover above
during nesting stays
the light phase little eagle watched me
watching her from some trail in the reserve.
Doubtless she saw me better.
The pair came back each year to breed
and raise a fledgling to fly the wide country
but in the last two seasons
her mate did not return from the south
where he overwintered.
She spent months alone guarding an empty nest.
At our last encounter she hovered briefly
mere metres away, watching me eye to eye on a hilltop.
Perhaps she was saying goodbye to a neighbour.
She left early and has not returned.
© Paul Williamson
Paul Williamson lives in Canberra. He has published poems on a range of topics in Australia, NZ, the US, UK, Canada and Japan. His collections include A Hint of Eden, Along the Forest Corridor, and Edge of Southern Bright, published by Ginninderra Press. His background is in Earth Sciences.