Last week I took a four hour train journey home to Devon, longer and more complicated than it should have been because of railway work. I crossed platforms and hopped from train to train, and I couldn’t help wondering about other peoples journeys, where were they all going on a cold Sunday in January? Few people talk to strangers on trains (I talk to anyone as you know!), but one man, also travelling alone, suddenly laughed out loud so I smiled as our eyes met. He was doing a crossword and got an answer he’d been struggling with. The clue was ‘What islander has nothing behind him?’. The answer that he was amused by?’A Manx cat’. We laughed together, it was a nice encounter. The final leg of the trip was beautiful, but few people seemed to look out of the windows at the countryside as I do. One of the things about being a certain age is that to many people you become invisible, often annoying, but if you like to observe others as most writers do, it can be very useful. A lady opposite me was knitting, a bright pink little girls cardigan, and kept counting stitches, and to my right a young man watched a film on his laptop. Giggly teenage girls tried to paint each others fingernails but the movement of the train was making it difficult for them, and soft snores emanated from more than one passenger. Am I the only person who enjoys the beauty of the countryside? I did take out one techy toy, my phone, because I wanted to capture some of that beauty that we take for granted. Please forgive the image quality, fading light, reflections from the windows and a moving train don’t make for the best photos!
And I was inspired to try a poem,
Train Landscape
Swiftly the southern line takes me
‘longside pastures and heading west
where pannies flood but folds of dry
give shelter to the Sunday flocks
Winter furrows retreat to hill crest
no conifer plantations lurk here
just naked deciduous petticoats
seeded by natures wise hand
A nonchalant deer raises its head
and a much used murmuration flies
on a thousand dark starling wings
sweet balm to my home going eyes
through Dorset and on to green Devon
I ride the train through my heartland
Lucid Gypsy 
I always look out of the windows!! You miss so much if you don’t. This weekend we travelled from Amsterdam to Leeuwarden in the north. I would have missed so much of a beautiful country and the old windmills etc
I also like to people watch and take pictures of my views from the train.
Of course YOU would Heidi, you’re like me!
I’m a looker through windows too, Gilly. And your photos are lovely. The quality of the light, and the view through glass gives them a timeless look – rather like oil paintings. Your reflections on your journey are spot on.
Oh thank you Tish what a lovely comment 🙂
Oh this resonates so much!
I always, ALWAYS ponder the journeys and life stories of people on public transport. Who are they? Where are they going? Are they happy or sad? and on and on. I observe anything and everythng, and make up mental vignettes. 🙂 It entertains and amuses me. I like when someone catches my eye and smiles..some of these minor encounters replay in my head years later.
Love your photos, Gilly, too. Very glad you took the time to take them!
We have much in common Karen!
and might i add…
your poem is beautifully brilliant!
❤
Your photos are wonderful. What a treat while surrounded by snow. Thank you, Gilly.
The poem’s rhythm echoes the movement of the train as it races across the green and fertile fields and pastures. ❤
Thanks Tess, unusually for me I actually think my poem is okay!
Well, you’re RIGHT. It’s awesome. ❤ ❤ ❤
I, too, always look out of the window! Love the imagery in your poem, those ‘deciduous petticoats’ 🙂
I’m glad Sue, we get a very different perspective don’t we?
Certainly do!
“…naked deciduous petticoats seeded by natures wise hand” … what a unique and wonderful description, Gilly. You do have a gift.
Thank you, I don’t often think much of my poetry but this one I quite like 🙂
… And not a speck of snow. Great photo gallery, Gilly.
Thank you, if I’d known for sure there wouldn’t be any I would have been driving instead and then missed these views!
Train windows are meant to be looked out of, but I also enjoy the people watching on train journeys. Your photos of the rolling countryside, are an absolute delight, apart from those pesky electricity pylons. Such a perfect poem, Gilly. Love it. 🙂
Thanks honey, I’m sure the other passengers thought I was nuts with my phone pressed against the window!
No comment. 😀
There is nothing quite like q train journey Gilly. Living where I do I miss them. Watching the world from a train has its own special perspective. I feel sorry for those who have their eyes glued to phone screens and miss it. Your poem…when I got to this…I felt it…
A nonchalant deer raises its head
and a much used murmuration flies
on a thousand dark starling wings
sweet balm to my home going eyes
and then you zapped me completely to a contented sigh with…
I ride the train through my heartland
Thanks Jo, I’m glad to have touched your heart. When will you come back to blogging, I really miss you?
No trains anywhere near you then?
No Gilly…no trains. There are very few passenger train services in NZ. Back to blogging…not sure. I have tried a couple of times but my heart is not in it at the moment. I just have nothing to say.
Well I’m touched that you’re here and I miss you and reading about your world. How is your girl getting on? Big hugs x
Train and bus journeys are always moments to wonder about other people’s worlds. What are their stories? where have they come from? where are they going? Sometimes snippets of conversation give you clues.
Like you, I talk to people and on a couple of long train rides strangers have told me their stories. I haven’t known their names, and that anonymity of the journey and the carriage as confessional seems to have been a catalyst that has allowed them freedom to talk.
Yes, a train ride is like being in a little bubble. I ‘m so glad you enjoy train travel too Isobel!
I’m a looker too, but then you would know that 🙂 and I try to avoid travelling by train on a Sunday as they ALWAYS do engineering works. You got some lovely shots through the windows, quite unusual to find any clean enough to attempt a photograph!
Yes of course you are – you wouldn’t miss a thing.The window wasn’t clean but I put the phone flat against the glass!
Good phone camera then!
I adore train travel, your poem and photos capture the feeling of movement but being stationary at the same time as you sit in a bubble of passing life and watch the people/passengers travelling with you. It brings back memories for me of my time on the Trans Mongolian express with my gaze fixed alternately on the amazing world out side the train window and the equally interesting people in the train.
Now that sounds like one amazing journey, have you ever blogged about it? I ‘d love to read it if so, if not when are you going to?
It was back in 1989 (an amazing time to travel, Tiananmen square massacre, the Berlin wall came down) Back then no mobile phones very few PCs no internet, and blogging was a long way away. I guess all those memories will stay in my photo album.
I love the poem, the photos and the meditation. There’s something special about through-the-window photos. I’ve been surprised at how good many of them are, and you want that slight blur to show you’re moving. Thank you for sharing your return home.
(And thanks too for reminding me about TEDtalks: I listened to a number yesterday as I emerged from illness.)
Ahh thanks Meg I’m glad you enjoyed this and went back to Ted! Are you better now?
Getting there, thank you. What a waste!
Love your train journey experience, I find all journeys good to make notes/jot down observations. However, that poem is amazing – and that I could never do. Nice one Gilly and the pics.
Oh thanks, I don’t get poetry, I often get compliments on poems that, like this one, I write in half an hour. So I tend to think that people are just being nice to me!
That’s a beautiful and evocative ode to the landscape you captured quite effectively considering the limitations Gilly! I haven’t sat on a train in a long, long time, and this brought back a flood of memories.
I would have loved to travel around India by train, for the people and the views. Glad you enjoyed this Madhu, thank you 🙂
I like your title:
EVERYONE’S JOURNEY IS DIFFERENT