Travel poems
Amsterdam 2000
a city that seems
at times
to be populated
solely by tourists
wanderers searching
for experience
sensation
titillation
red lights for lust
the prostitutes look you in the eye
and tap their nails
on their glass door
as you pass by
the oude kerk
bathes in their light
the dark and silent canals
slowly drift the new year
towards the sea
Muenster
this fortress city
now ringed by promenade
patrolled by bikes
the old town maze
now ruled by commerce
the new community of goods
the cathedral looks proudly over the Dom
blessing the market-vendors
the industrious Catholic citizens
St. Lambertkirche displays its open spire
hung with cages that housed
Anabaptist bodies in 1536
the museum portraits of Jan van Leyden
reveal a stubborn fanatic
beard thrust forward in defiance
a pegboard regulates his harem
paintings depict the siege of the city
massed armies on the plain
outside the walls
where I am staying
at the Jugendgasthaus
Daryl Culp
darylculp@yahoo.com