Where the World Opens

I sailed toward horizons that called to me ~

to islands and cities where the air feels ancient.

Madeira rose from the sea like a green dream,

its cliffs catching the sky as flowers opened in silence.

Tenerife met me with a hush, mountains breathing,

clouds drifting low, each step revealing a quiet secret.

Arrecife shifted the world beneath me ~

volcanoes standing watch, their slopes painted

in rust and ember, colors of another planet.

Among them, I felt suspended between 

earth and something beyond.

Grand Canaria welcomed me with golden shores

and streets bright with easy warmth.

Outside the city, the dunes moved like living sculptures ~

soft, wind-shaped, endless.

I walked their warm curves, feeling both small and infinite.

Morocco came to me as a tapestry of

heat and color ~ Casablanca alive with motion,

Agadir carrying the desert in one breath and the ocean in the next.

There, stillness found me in a way I'd never known.

And Cadiz ~ sunlit, unhurried ~ a city resting by the water,

time stretching gently through narrow streets

that felt like memories waiting to surface.

From port to port, the world unfolded ~ vast, surprising, serene.

I felt lifted, awake, alive, as though I stepped into the fullest version of myself.

Each place left a light in me ~ colors, sounds, salt, calm ~

and I carry them now,  quiet reminders of how beautiful the world can be.