Every human heart bears dreams of travel. The toddler crawls and stumbles to the sparkly object or adjacent room; the teenager steps outside parental control in search of autonomy; and the young adult, strong and free, sets his sights on what is farthest.
In short, from the earliest stages, our life is set in motion by desire. The desire to experience what is out of reach.
But often these journeys do not leave the realm of the imagination. The heart is left longing for travel.
Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, a French poet of the early 20th century, writes in one poem of ships setting sail and leaving him on the quayside: “In this port and my heart grows an eternal plea,” he says, adding in a final line of stinging beauty: “I have great, unrealised journeys within me.”
That poem opens our theme, and lends it its name. Over five poems, we meet authors who dream and desire, but who are also at times complacent in their sluggish sorrow, nostalgic for an escape which they idealise yet never give in to.
Accompanying these texts are a set of watercolours by Whistler, and songs recorded by Django Reinhardt. These pieces are gentle and dreamy, but they also evoke loneliness and frustration.
Olivier Holmey
London, 29 November 2014
Our selection of poems, music and images for all five weeks of this theme is available by clicking on the tabs above or through the links below:
I. Week One
II. Week Two
III. Week Three
IV. Week Four
V. Week Five