Evan Vandermeer

Many Partings

If you could somehow look back at my old college notebooks, you’d find pathological sketches of travel plans rather than actual notes. Hoping to move abroad after graduation, and with an unsettled mind as to precisely where I’d go, I mapped out all kinds of options across the continents: Would I head to South America, where by volunteering on farms for room and board I could last for years? Would I move to Vietnam, where the teaching market was booming and which would place all of Southeast Asia at my fingertips? Or would I spend several months trekking the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand, channeling my inner Bilbo Baggins?

high mountain lake
even in the daylit sky
a star

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About the Author

Evan Vandermeer lives in South Bend, Indiana, where he completed his MA in English at Indiana University South Bend. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Twyckenham Notes, Eunoia Review, Jersey Devil Press, Grand Little Things, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and elsewhere. His haiku and haibun have appeared or are forthcoming in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Presence, contemporary haibun online, and elsewhere.