At bustling Gare Saint Lazare is the train for home – boring diesel, no longer romantically clouded in steam, when you would have been dressed formally for travelling with a hat and white gloves picking up every speck of coal dust.
Now you are casual in jeans and a sweater which would have been more convenient then. Instead of a porter to do your bidding you trail your suitcase on wheels behind you, anxiously seeking your place. Sounds intensify; people are rushing; doors are slamming; whistles shriek. No time for nostalgic musing: hurl yourself in, flop down in your seat and relax. Jerk, clank, trundle clatter between encroaching city blocks. Settle to a smoother rhythm. Calmly now, we’re on our way.
Homeward happily
through blooming apple orchards ─
the fragrance of Spring
For dVerse Haibun Monday where the illustration was Monet’s painting of Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, the terminus for Basse Normandie, where I live. When I was studying for my online degree that station was associated in my mind with travel to tutorials and exams.
Vivinfrance's Blog 
The way i see poeTry
iS a thousAnd or more
poetic responses to
even one poem..
iN trading suits
and formal
ways for introspection
free my friend… on tRains
of Love.. that never speed.. away..:)
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Self service culture..
human touch fleeting..
Flowers bloom..
Valleys green..
Mountains high…
Nature touches..
human
gloves grow colder..:)
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Blooming apple orchards! Yay! 🙂 Doors slamming- we don’t hear that any more 😦 I like this piece, Viv.
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I love the sweet, lighthearted haiku at the end. The heart is happy when heading home!
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My grandmother used to talk about taking the train. I wish I could have experienced it, too.
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This sentence makes me infinitely happy:
“Jerk, clank, trundle clatter between encroaching city blocks.”
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Oh this is so very nice.
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Home again, smell of the apple orchards….such a nice write this is – I remember when one wore hats, gloves, ties to travel. This takes me back. The hustle bustle of travel and that jewel of a haiku at the end that makes the fragrant peace…
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Beautiful… especially adore the haibun at the end 🙂
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Love the clatter, clank and jerks. Gave me quite a visual of the train. 🙂
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How it was vs. how it is now. But it seems you still have the travel “bug”. Lovely prose and haiku!
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Great to get the contemporary details, in contrast to the historical – and what a lovely contrast of a different kind in the haiku.
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I love how you express that period of train travel. Bygone dreams for a fan of big steam! Thank you, Vivienne!
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Your language evokes the hustle rush, and even panic of the train station, but by the end…on the journey at last, you bring about a sense of peace and contentment. And then your haiku brings that sense of peace to an even deeper level.
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I must say that I really relax on train journeys. I once travelled from here to Berlin by train, via Paris and it was fabulous…
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Travel is so much more commonplace now. Comfort is important, but so is a sense of occasion, and back then, it was still ‘a thing’ to get on a train and travel. I can just, just remember some of the last steam trains that ran from Waterloo; as a four year old, I was taken in the car to the station to collect my father from his homeward train after a day’s work in the City. That smell of the steam and the train is embedded in my earliest memories.
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My kids have asked me more than once: WHY did we get dressed up to travel??
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Yes, there’s nothing like going home.
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I love the contrast of the past and present but still some noises from the train.
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Diesel and jeans aren’t as picturesque…but will still bring you home! I love your haiku 🙂
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The times change, but our enjoyment of the trip home always seems to brighten the day. My commute involves New York City’s stinky rivers and other malodorous landscapes… Next time, I will close my eyes and think of “blooming apple orchards”. 🙂
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That took me back to another time…formal clothes and steam engines! The world does seem more beautiful when one is headed home!
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I really enjoy train travel. Once you are on, and seated, life almost takes on a suspended state where all you have to do is sit and observe.
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I think it was the Gare St Lazare that I experienced to go to Brittany…it’s been a long while. In any case, you let me share the experience of train travel in France–I would love to repeat it.
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How lovely to come home ~ I take the trains everyday to work so the sounds & sensations of movements resonated with me ~ Good one Viv ~
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Home again, home again-lovely reminiscence. The older I get I remember our NW in the 50’s before the population tripled, & the genuine blue highway road trips as Eisenhower built the interstates. It’s what makes us good poets.
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I want so very much to take a journey on the Flying Scotsman. Unfortunately, it’s sold out for the entire year. I love your train journey, Viv.
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book for next year now!
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How silly of me. Why didn’t I think of that!
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I love how you brought in the change in attire for travel. When it would have been more convenient to dress comfortably, they most certainly did not. And now, you might even see someone in their pajamas on a flight, train, or bus. I also love your haiku that was connected and yet very much stood alone. Peace, Linda
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But still there is that beauty of traveling … Really love how that calm settles in, with views of orchards, there can’t be anything better than going home,
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