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A Wandering Poem

Turning an adventurous spiritual trip into an introspectively emotional travel-journal!

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A Wandering Poem

A Wandering Poem

A Wandering Poem

A Wandering Poem

A Wandering Poem

Turning an adventurous spiritual trip into an introspectively emotional travel-journal!

Turning an adventurous spiritual trip into an introspectively emotional travel-journal!

Turning an adventurous spiritual trip into an introspectively emotional travel-journal!

Turning an adventurous spiritual trip into an introspectively emotional travel-journal!

Christian Marques
Christian Marques
Christian Marques
Christian Marques
1 Campaign |
Lisboa, Portugal
$1,624 USD $1,624 USD 47 backers
105% of $1,547 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Choose your Perk

E-Book

Currency Conversion $5 USD
€5 EUR
Est. Shipping
January 2016
6 claimed

Paperback Book

Currency Conversion $15 USD
€15 EUR
Est. Shipping
January 2016
35 claimed

Short Summary

'A Wandering Poem' is exactly what the name describes. A project born out of a spiritual journey, and a strong passion for the poetic form of the written word, the desire to merge them, and to create a work that will speak by itself.

The tortuous road will stretch and bend, through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Servia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and the final destination, India.

For each day on the road, a poem will emerge, seizing inspiration from the ride, the characters, the landscapes, the beauty of the world, human kindness, freedom.

Differently from the usual travel journals, this one promises to be of a more abstract nature, an emotional imprint, an heterodox description of an unorthodox trip.

I have set myself the challenge of forcing the search for inspiration, of forcing the act of writing, and of forcing myself through a though area of the world.

The objective: to come back from my trip and publish. Wandering poems accompanied by photographs, emotional postcards of the world's exoticism, the soul of the road on paper.

I'm counting with your interest in my work, and with your support, to make the publishing possible, to help bring my work into the world, in electronic and physical formats.

We are all wanderers, lost, in one way or the other, but we all have an undeniable emotional connection with the universe around us. My desire is to bring the story of my trip, of my heart and of my soul, just in front of you, so that you can experience all that I will experience, so that you can travel with me through fallen empires, spice markets, desert landscapes, human faces touched by the sun, turbans, beards, immortal eyes.

Come with me on this trip, the pleasure is all mine.


What We Need & What You Get

I have set the fund-raising objective of 1.500€ which is the sufficient amount of funds necessary to publish my work. 
Based on online print-on-demand services, I have made an estimation of how much it would cost me to self-publish my book, let's say printing an initial number of 200 physical copies and an e-book. 
The trip requires no necessary additional funding, as that is already covered by the budget I have defined for those 6 months.
The promised perks will be :
  • For a contribution of 5€ you will get an e-book in any of the common electronic book formats (ePub, AZW, LIT, PDF, ODF, Mobi), accompanied with a customized postcard, made with selected photos from the trip. 
  • For a contribution of 15€ you will get a physical copy of the paperback book, accompanied with a signature and customized dedication matching the feedback I'll have by exchanging a couple of emails with you :) I will also include a postcard with a selected photo from the trip.  
  • The poems will initially be written in Portuguese, and promptly translated by myself to English, for the first publishing batch. Later I plan to have them translated to French, Spanish, Italian and Greek
If the goal is not reached, I will do my best to still bring to the world, at least the number of copies that were promised in the pre-order, even if that involves additional investment from my part. 

I am currently discussing and negotiating with some Portuguese publishers in order to see if I can get a publishing compromise, and some sort of publicity/marketing support from an established actor in the publishing business.


    The Impact

    Because this project means to be original, and different from the usual travel journals, you will be helping and contributing to the birth of something freshly new and innovative.
    If you like to read travel journals, if you like poetry, and if you're interested in following my adventure, then you meet all the requirements for being a part of this crowd-funding.
    I am a dedicated individual, and practically every project I have ever put my hands to, has reached a conclusion (please do check my personal page to see my previous work in computer science and in music), and this project will definitely not be different.

      Risks & Challenges

      Of course there are some risks associated to this project, and the main one would be the feasibility of the trip. I am currently undergoing the process of acquiring all the visas, vaccines, etc. 
      Because the places I will cross are relatively unstable right now - with ISIL sweeping through Syria and Iraq moving closer to Turkey and Iran, and Pakistan in a state of civil unrest - there is definitely a probability that I will be denied passage through some of those countries. In that case, I do not intend to stop the trip, but I will try to find a work-around, to reach my next destination without putting my life in risk, of course.
      There is also the chance of something happening to me on the road - which I find very unlikely - that would preclude me from writing and reaching the end of the project. For this eventuality, I would definitely refund all the donations, in case that the project could not be completed for some external reason. 

      Finally, there is the risk of arriving home with a complete work, and not being able to find a publishing support, someone who would bet on me. For that, the contingency plan is that of self-publishing. If no publisher will support the project, I will not let my work die without seeing the light of day. I will use the raised funds, and if necessary personal funds, to make a print-on-demand, and to bring the work to your hands, as promised. 


        Other Ways You Can Help

        If you can't or don't want to contribute financially to my project, there are other ways you could help me get through with my endeavor. 
        • Since I will be mainly hitchhiking and couchsurfing, if you know people or have any contacts in the countries I will pass through, it would be of great value for me to have some local contacts, that I could reach in case of need.
        • You can and should help me diffuse my project, sharing it through your peers, your social networks, even your work colleagues. You can also share it through the tools provided by Indiegogo, right here on this website!
        • If you know, or are in contact with any kind of independent publisher, please do forward me their contact, I'd love to propose my work to them.

        What do I expect to get from this experience?

        Apart from producing a work of poetry and photography, there are other things that I expect to find on this journey. Of course, the cliché spiritual journey could not be defined without the phrase 'I will be looking for myself', which indeed is one of the main motivations for my trip. But apart from that, I will be moving (ideally) by hitchhiking and sleeping at people's places through couchsurfing. Why? Because apart from being much more optimized in terms of budget, there is a world of kindness and goodness waiting to be found. I believe that the majority of people in the world are truly good-hearted, and I want to test that theory with this trip. 
        I also want to prove that it is possible to make an incredible trip with few money, given that you are ready to let go of a bit of comfort, and also, I want to demystify a bit the general idea that people have of the middle east, especially Iran and Pakistan. I believe that they are incredible countries with such a cultural richness, who unfortunately are obscured by the media, on account of their political and religious circumstances. 

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