Paris and Tokyo

I’ve never been to Paris
but I’ve dreamed

of her graceful curving
streets. I always wanted to explore,

those rues
filled with eye-teasing beauty
and promising something

to entertain my tongue
in its little shops.

But I have been to Tokyo
andoh, 
how I adore him.

His electricity
knows how to delight me.

I come alive
discovering his many sides.  

Every sight makes me sigh
and long to take him in
as deeply as possible.

I only found out much later
I might have gone to Paris,
at least once.

But

it might have meant
I may never have seen Tokyo

and that thought breaks
my already partite heart.

Tokyo is home.
I have no regrets about that.

But there are nights
when I still think of Paris
and my settled self indulges
in an old dream or two.

Photo of the Tokyo Tower by Azizbek on Unsplash


Song Choices: Sakura, Sakura and La Vie En Rose

Liner Notes for this Groove: This poem was created for the Weekly Scribblings prompt at Poetry and Storytellers United. So I must confess, I've never really been to either city. 😂

23 comments:

  1. The heart wants what the heart wants. I hope you make it to both cities some day!

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  2. Your Paris verses could have been written on my behalf. I have never had cravings for Tokyo – but oh, your wonderful enthusiasm, and the details (which only belatedly I realise are in fact very few) are extremely convincing!

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    1. They are two very different cities. I'm glad I could do justice for my admiration of both.

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  3. A fun read you wrote. I'm being serious, you could still go to Paris. Even if you wait so long you'll be in a wheelchair it would be in it. I may not go but I would like to go again. The shape I'm in now I wouldn't walk all over like before. Our daughter lived and worked in London five years so we went to see her and our baby-when-she left granddaughter. And Hub also who couldn't work on his spousal visa. It was easy to take the train to Paris. We visited also before she went, several other times. Two of the times we took a granddaughter when she was 16. Both those ended in a mission trip in Spain.
    We only were in Tokyo at the airport waiting for a change of planes. Pictures show it to be a fun place to visit.

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    1. I have a lot of life to live yet, and it will be interesting to see where it takes me.

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  4. There was a time when i had travel on my to-do list and both Paris and Tokyo i would have loved to visit☺
    Happy Wednesday

    Much💜love

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    1. As time goes on, life does bring some interesting perspectives as to what things are important enough to name and list.

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  5. I love that this poem is a well balanced mixture of longing for what isn't, delight and respect for what is, and acceptance of what dreams may come. The tone is perfect for the theme. The word choices are brilliantly thought-provoking.

    And I'm with Debra, "heart wants what the heart wants"; even when time or our circumstances don't allow us to have all we yearn for when we yearn for it and how we yearn for it, the heart will dream a way.

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    1. Thank you, Magaly. This was an ambitious piece, at least it felt that way to write. And I'm glad that the ideas I was wrestling with did manage to come across.

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    2. I think they managed it and then some.

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  6. It interests me that you refer to Tokyo as "him", and I wonder about that. I've never longed to see foreign cities, but I'd love to see the Cotswolds in England. the heather on the moors of Ireland, rural Italy and Scotland. I hope your Paris dream comes true!

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    1. I try not to explain the meanings of my poems, because it always comes as a delight to see what other people come away with. But the choice of pronouns was indeed quite deliberate.

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  7. This is such a wonderful poem!!! I've been to Paris, twice ... and you have whet my appetite for Tokyo.

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  8. Your poem is delightful in so many ways. But mostly I how the personification combined with the speaker's longing breathes life to this cities. I've never been to Tokyo but I have always imagined the city as a him. :) And Paris, she is a beauty. But my favourite city in France, remains Lyon.

    Beautiful write, Rommy.

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  9. I've been to Paris twice but more than that in dreams! Paris (and Monet's Garden) is like a lover that I miss. Have never met Toyoko and probably never will.

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    1. Monet's Garden would be a delight to explore.

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  10. You had me fooled - you write with such intensity, passion and longing I was sure this was true. LOVED the whole poem = truly amazing. A wonderful read. Thank you.

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  11. I have been briefly to both cities but I have spent much more time in them both through the magical aid of old movies!

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    1. Thank goodness for gorgeous cinematography

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