Book Recommendation: Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents
Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher/PR team for consideration. I share only books I genuinely believe are worth recommending.
These days, we hear a lot about women traveling solo around the world. It sounds glamorous and exciting. But what is it really like to travel long-term, across continents and cultures, on your own?
Who are the women who undertake journeys like that?
Poet Ebony Walden is one of them. In Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents, she takes us along on the extraordinary journey she began in June 2010, when she was just 29 years old.
Before leaving New York, Ebony spent nine months meticulously planning and fundraising for her adventure, with the support of her family. Her plan was ambitious: five continents, seventeen countries, a modest budget, a backpack, hostels, volunteer work with children, and a focus on poetry.
She called it her Poetic Justice World Tour.
The idea was fascinating. Throughout her travels, Ebony would use poetry as a way to connect with people she met along the way. She would sometimes co-write poems with adults and children, using a fill-in-the-blank poem template given to her by another poet. Through this process, she invited people to share pieces of their lives—their memories, families, emotions, experiences, and even their favorite foods.
And that is where this book became much more than a travel memoir for me.
Why This Book Stayed With Me
When Ebony begins her journey, leaving New York for Guatemala, the first stop on her adventure, she writes:
“I tried to inhale confidence and exhale anxiety.”
As I read those words, I could feel her anxiety. I felt myself inhaling and exhaling along with her.
But what impressed me even more was what happened after she arrived.
Ebony had a remarkable way of getting to know people. She was thoughtful about whom she approached and when and where to begin the process of co-writing a poem. It was not simply a matter of asking a stranger to participate. A relationship had to be created, sometimes in a very short period of time.
Poetry became the vehicle that helped open the door.
Through shared experiences, conversations, observations, and the poems they created together, Ebony often found connections between the lives of the people she encountered and experiences from her own life. A conversation with someone she had just met could trigger a memory. Something she observed in another culture could cause her to reflect on her own past.
In that way, the journey became a journey inward as well as outward.
While traveling, Ebony was learning about people and places, but she was also learning more about herself.
She began to confront some of the things from her past that had troubled her. Fiercely independent, she learned to let her guard down, allow people in, and sometimes ask for help.
I found that transformation particularly moving.
A Lesson in Generosity
One passage that stayed with me came from Ebony’s experience volunteering with children in Kenya:
“They had taught me so much about hospitality, generosity, and joy that ran deeper than circumstance.”
That observation says so much about the deeper lessons of travel.
The children may not have had financial resources, but Ebony recognized the richness of what they offered her. Their generosity and joy became part of what she was learning—and eventually, part of what she carried forward into her own life.
This is one of the things I appreciated most about Where I’m From. Ebony doesn’t simply tell us about the people she met. She allows those encounters to change her.
And perhaps that is what meaningful travel is supposed to do.
What I Really Loved About This Book
I also appreciated the way Ebony structured the book to give readers something to take away from her experiences.
The epilogue brings us up to date with what she has been doing in the fifteen years since that extraordinary journey. It’s intriguing to discover that her travel adventures have continued and to see how the lessons of her Poetic Justice World Tour have become woven into her life.
The book also includes four appendices: fifteen lessons learned, fifteen reflection questions, an overview of her R-to-R method, and the Where I’m From poem template that readers can use themselves.
I particularly enjoyed that last part. After reading about Ebony’s experiences using poetry to connect with people, readers have an opportunity to try the process themselves.
If this sounds like a book you’d enjoy, you can find Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents (Paid Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.)
Who Might Enjoy This Book
If you are:
- fascinated by women who travel independently
- interested in travel as a means of connecting with people and cultures
- curious about poetry and storytelling
- interested in personal transformation
- looking for a travel memoir that goes beyond destinations
…I think you will find something worthwhile here.
Why It’s One of Mary’s Picks
Where I’m From is a travel memoir, but it is also a story about connection, courage, reflection, and transformation.
Ebony set out to travel across five continents and seventeen countries, using poetry to connect with the people she encountered.
But along the way, she discovered that while she was teaching others through poetry, she was being taught as well.
That may be the biggest takeaway for me.
The journey changed her—not simply because of the places she visited, but because of the people she allowed herself to know and the lessons she was willing to receive from them.
And isn’t that one of the gifts of traveling deeper?
Sometimes we leave home thinking we are going to discover the world.
And somewhere along the way, we discover a little more of ourselves.
