Yes, that is true; and something more
You’ll find, where’er you roam,
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home.
But every house where Love abides,
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home:
For there the heart can rest.
– Excerpt from A Home Song by Henry Van Dyke
(Illustrator: ?. Images from kan.weibo.com)
Feel like going on a “poem hunt”? Then you should visit Leiden in the Netherlands. Scattered around town, you will find muurgedichten – 101 poems in different languages that were painted on the outer walls of various buildings. You would see, for example, poems by William Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda and e. e. cummings, and those of Dutch authors who lived or studied in this university town. And because we’ve had nothing but rain this weekend in Barcelona (rain and snow in some parts of Spain), I thought I’d share with you one of the wall poems we found in Leiden in 2010. It is titled “Pluja” which is the Catalan word for rain. We saw this wall poem one afternoon while walking back home after birdwatching.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
by Dr. Seuss
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
You’ll look up and down streets. Look ’em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
Denim and Gray 