Saturday, September 17, 2011

Train Travel

1985 New York:  Hank on the Amtrak nearing NY from Washington DC with Salleh Kaki

Choo Choo Chugging

Had a fair share of train travel
In the school days
We boys from the RMC
Hailed from all over the country
Given warrant tickets
Like ordinary soldiers
From place of abode
To our college
In Port Dickson
From whence we depart back home
For our school holidays and back again
When the school term commenced
The same routine
Would follow
For every term break

There were occasions
We organized ourselves
For expeditions (here)
We still jumped onto the trains
But to different destinations
Missed the fun and joy
Of a facet  growing up

Other people movers,
Trains out of London
South to Bournemouth and north to Luton
The Tubes,the Metro in Paris

From Calcutta through Nagpur and Bombay (Mumbai now)
The trams of Delft-Amsterdam
The trains to Lugano
The funicular up Mount Pilatus
And the clock-work Swiss lines
The cable cars of ‘Frisco
The Amrak, the NY subway network to Times Square
Present day LRT, MRT and the like

Nothing like the thrill
Of childhood travel with your peers
On a train through moments
Of memories

Inspiredby d'Verse Poetics Train

12 comments:

  1. I'd like to experience trains in London. Nice poem!

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  2. Great memories you just gave us as you chugged along on the choo choo you conducted..haha

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  3. Nice train of memories...must be fun seeing all those places and stops...enjoyed this ~

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  4. nice hank...sounds like you have enjoyed quite the adventures...i have as well so you stirred them just a bit...nice write....

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  5. so you rode the funicular up Mount Pilatus..? how cool...i've boarded this train so many times...mount pilatus is my second home..not kidding...enjoyed the trip you took us on hank

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  6. Wonderful memories Hank. I recall a train ride as a child being a treat.

    Yvonne.

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  7. Good one..;) train of memories, may always be with us..;)

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  8. A nostalgic and peaceful read... sounds like some great times!

    ~laurie

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  9. trains are always great fun :)
    great poem :)

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  10. A saga of trains and travel, and yes, the fun of traveling as a child is unequaled.

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  11. There was a train that went to Lubbock from Amarillo. In summer I was given a big jigsaw puzzle that took 2 minutes. I went to spend 2 weeks with the Holley cousins. Maybe I loved trains since then as you say here, childhood train rides make a lasting impression.
    In '92 I went to "Great Britain" for the first time and I went alone. I stayed with some friends in Surrey for 10 days and they took me around the home counties and to Oxford. Then I took a train..away from London, meaning to get off at Exeter. But it was only a little over a 1/2 hour away. Even Lubbock had been a two hour train ride. I stayed on the that BR train past Exeter, Plymouth, Taunton, and finally they pried me off in Penzance - where I found that there were no pirates, just as there was no sign of Paddington Bear in Paddington station!

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  12. My childhood travel mostly revolved around airplanes so I enjoyed a different perspective.

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