DK: Exit Poem

Hullo!  Its been way too long since I've made a post.

I want to follow up Taylor's bit about heading back to the states.  Leaving the Land of the Long White Cloud has weighed heavily on my mind recently.  So heres an exit poem.  I it wrote while waiting to head to Queenstown, alone in an airport.  I'm working sections of it into a song.

Peace and Love.

A Sojourner's Song
by Daniel Koster

My heart is full of an unrequited desire

To be

I’ve found love in adventure

I already dread the flashbacks

Filled with longing

For the things I never once cared

Synthetic material, fit for a trek

A 2^nd hand jacket from the Gap

In Leigh—Up north.

And in an interview

For a doctorial program or

Who knows what ditch of a formality life

Backs me into

I’ll be asked

“Why New Zealand?”

And I’ll respond

“To see how beautiful this world can be.”

Ace in the hole.

I have to try so hard to ignore the fact

That this is all going to end soon

That I need to concentrate at rest

But the sobbing of a child offers a substantial distraction,

A double-edged knife

Don’t you dare, young man, forget to be

Don’t you dare, young man, forget

In Jerry’s words

There’s a worlds worth of road and

Even more ocean before we get home

And I guess he’s right, put in a cryptic way

That we’d reassign our concept of home

To the New Zealand outback,

To ourselves.

Perhaps the only thing that silences

My rumination is the prospect of return one day

But that day won’t feel the same

My youth extinguished,

Beaten and battered into the shape

I’ll die in

For now, I’m as malleable as a glacier

The world a pick axe—wielded by the sturdy hand

Of the Tour Guide—

If my parents were right.

But all that is above me, today

Let me advise you,

You static-walking-corpse-to-come

Don’t forget to be, old man

Don’t you dare forget

TD: Goodbye Copenhagen

Well I'm sadly packing up my room and getting ready to fly back to America tomorrow. A few days ago I thought I was ready. But now that it's crunch time I can't even think about it. After hearing a speech at our closing ceremony in which a comical kid from Skidmore explained how much he hates the "study abroad will change your life" phrase cause it takes something so unique and personal and makes it generic. And that it did change his life, but he couldn't explain that to everyone because everyone didn't stay in Copenhagen. I think he was right, it changed my life but I'm not going to stamp a cliche like that on it.

I think it's a great thing that I don't want to leave. And I'm sure I feel completely American again after only a few days of adjusting. But those in NZ (or Ireland), who still have a month or so left, cherish every fucking moment, because you're not going to want to leave, and you're probably going to feel pretty shitty your last day as you think back about a crazy semester in a foreign country! It's a good thing though, fo sho. I felt the need to get this past out there, my mind is racing.

I look forward to seeing all your beautiful faces either this summer or in the fall, when we're seniors.

That's all for now,

Taylor