Danielle E. Healy

When I returned from Japan I walked through my apart­ment door and had a deep de­sire to leave but not back to Japan. My trip was great - don’t get that wrong; howev­er, it was with 28 oth­er hu­man bod­ies. I need­ed to leave and find a place away from home where I could won­der. I didn’t know how to ex­press this emo­tion that would not leave and the only thing that seemed right was to write it as poet­ry. So I thought of past expe­riences I’ve had and used them to encap­su­late this over­whelm­ing mood. My love let­ter was to my soul but can also be for the indi­vid­ual who has a long­ing for trav­el. When I origi­nal­ly wrote my poem I creat­ed it for the part of me that de­sires to be on the go and on the road - alone. See­ing new places with some­one you love is like­ly how most peo­ple would choose their experi­ence; but there is a deep yearn­ing I have to see places singly. Soli­tude, be­ing in the moment with only your breath is the opi­um I seek. And I am nev­er high enough. Thank you for opening a path for me to be vul­nera­ble and share, even if it is only to one per­son.