This place is your world. The shock of it – glaring, blaring, pungent, abrasive, all of it too sudden – drives me away again and again.
For you, I will always return, though I can’t say for how long. But I will never stay.
"5 minute walks"
by Jen Maidenberg
Where your words matter.
Poems | England | Staffordshire | East Anglia | Northern Ireland | The Needwood Poems.
you may ask yourself, well, how did i get here
Author
The road to the forum is paved with good intentions.
tiny histories
Photography
Recreating the famous dishes of famous writers. Part recipe blog, part historical discussion, entirely unabashed love of books.
Bookish Adventures
Gather. Discover. Cultivate.
The Silver Leaf Journal 
Good, go away til next year, shoo! (Pretty sick of the old north wind. Totally done with him, for this year.)
Love the idea and the tale. Bravo.
Thank you. I should explain though that while I’m also sick of the North wind and it would make sense to read this piece in that light, I was hoping to refer here to the more abstract, un-wind-related meaning of “tramontane”: anything seen as foreign, strange, or even barbarous.
Some worlds are overwhelming! Nicely done.
Yes! Thank you.
I like the sacrifice inherent within these words. It is clearly a huge one!
Thank you!
I actually love how this can play on more than one meaning of “tramontane” (which I had to look up, by the way, so thank you). I can see the “other” blowing in and blowing out…
Also, “glaring, blaring, pungent, abrasive”–I see that big city which is exciting for a bit, then just overwhelming.
Thank you so much for reading so closely. You have it exactly! From the alienated person/figure who keeps returning, to the city (which can be a literal city or any kind of excessive existence – but I had a city in mind). It would even work as an alien in love with an earthling, though I never can write about that kind of thing successfully!
I know you could write successfully about alien/earthling love, IF you wanted to. 🙂
Well, thank you for the vote of confidence…and you’re probably right, it’s not really my inspiration 🙂
So many meanings…brilliant.