Around The World In Terza Rima Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Scotland's for climbers, where the air is pure
The sanctuary of tartan and oatcakes
Salmon and whisky for the epicure

Across the border, England hosts the lakes
The Dales, the Fells, Tennyson's Isle of Wight
And Longleat, with its lions and jackanapes

The Welsh have daffies, poets and anthracite
Dragons and druids, leeks, the Eisteddfod
Across the Irish Sea the locals bite

Into their soda bread. No need to prod
Them into blarney. Celtic eloquence
Is in the Irish DNA and blood

In France, there's haute cuisine and haute couture
The Seine, for boating suppers and amour

In Germany, there's Berlin beer an bars
Black forest gateaux, sausages and Handel
Marlene Dietrich, stage and movie stars

Athens! What modern town can hold a candle
To the Greek Parthenon, Athena's home
The democratic birthplace and its cradle?

On the Grand Tour, the greatest pull was Rome
The Colosseum, Forum, Vatican
Tourists admire each papal spire and dome

Romania's where Bram Stoker's bogyman
Count Dracula draws foreign fans in droves
And Roma families rove by caravan

Holland and Belgium, tulips and windmills
Cycles and barges, total dearth of hills

Switzerland zings with skiers on each slope
Each native, it's believed's, a chocaholic
In Zurich, stash your cash for greatest scope

Poland, the landscape's pleasant and bucolic
But World War 2 left landmarks dark and deep
Camp Auschwitz, rears up grimly melancholic

Spain and Portugal, here fun is cheap
Sun seekers, hedonists, flock here to sport
They stretch out beach to beach like stranded sheep

Mother Russia, deathbed of the Tsars
Crosses nine time zones in its vast expanse
The Volga, vodka, ghosts of the boyars

Norway, Sweden, Finland, stark, severe
The Sami people herding their reindeer

Japan has bamboo, cherries, Mount Fuji
Hiroshima, Honda, the Samurai
Nintendo, Judo, Saki and sushi

Vietnam. Go visit Saigon or Hanoi
Rice paddies by the mighty Mekong's side
Spirit homes. Jade pools with flashing Koi

Thailand's a Buddhist haven. Have you tried
Bangkok's cuisine? Or flown to famed Phuket?
By beach and palms, enjoy a jumbo ride

India, Sri Lanka, don't forget
Ayurvedic Massage, meditation
Look out for Taj, for tiger, minaret

China's Beijing, the Yangtze, and Confucius
The Great Wall, Asia's jewel and powerhouse

Australia's aborigines, koala bears
The Barrier Reef, black widow, platypus
Sydney. Perth, the great red rock at Ayres

New Zealand. Maoris' haka may nonplus
Lord of the Rings, world rugby and Dunedin,
Octopus, Kiwi, beasts most curious

Canada's tribal folk, the Algonquin
Tell tales of wolf and bear and caribou
Where maples rustle, skunks dart out and in

Greenland's renowned for kayak and igloo
Glaciers, polar bears, and glaciers
Iceland, for hot springs, elves and thick lamb stew

America's Chicago, jazz, fast food
Harlem, Los Angeles and Hollywood

New York, the Bronx, New England in the fall
Washington, Luther King, white Southern villas
Alaska, Honolulu, basketball

Mexico's corn and cane, flat flour tortillas
Chillies, mosquitoes, salsa, orange groves
Burritos, The destitute. Fiery tequilas

Cuba is cha cha, sunshine and dance moves
John Lennon, Rolling stones, the Caribbean
Mamba, rum, Castro and sandy coves

The water here is warm and cerulean
Where pirate scenes are filmed. Once Carib slaves
Were ferried here, most, African-Ghanaian

For limbo dancing: Trinidad, Tobago.
Once launching point for ships to El Dorado

Jamaica's reggae, Bob Marley and ganja
Bananas, hurricanes, Blue Mountain scene
Kingston and dreadlocks, sugarcane and Rasta

Fiji, ex-cannibals, each beach pristine
Coconut, sperm whale teeth, a sunlit sky
Snorkelling, diving, waters blue and clean

Africa's Bushmen, Zulu and Maasai
Lion and zebra, viper, porcupine
Where Serengeti's wildebeest multiply

Israel, where in kibbutz and Palestine
Survivors thrived beyond the Holocaust
Here orthodox on kosher McDonald's dine

Syria, Iran, Iraq, hawks in the sky
Turkey. The Middle East. All tinder dry

And all the tiny specks: Cyprus and Jersey
The Philippines, Bahamas, and St Kitts
The Falkland isles, Crete, The Maldives and Guernsey

Galapagos, where Darwin's finch still flits
Our world has many seas, stormy and tame
Aegean, Ionian, scholars' favourites

And bays, those strand bites worthy of the name
The Hudson, Baffin, Bengal and Biscay
And Gulfs, where storms play a waiting game

Rivers: the Ganges, where the Hindus pray
The Amazon, the Seine, the Rhine, the Rhone
The Danube, Tigris, Nile, on the Pharaohs' way

Travel's for those who set aside the book
Step off the page, plunge in life, and look