A Poetic Essay About New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.

Use your imagination.  The more you study about New Orleans, the less you'll know.  Ours is an intuitive city.  What you see is what you get but there is more to New Orleans than ever meets the naked eye.  

Signs and sigils, sirens and serendipity ----there are a million little pieces that make up an ordinary New Orleans day, let alone the more magical ones.  Stop to smell the oleander.

A week in New Orleans is edenic.  A decade can go by in a wink.  Be a New Orleanian for as long as you can.  Blessed are those who are born in New Orleans, who never leave, and, who die here, buried in New Orleans.  New Orleans is summa theologica come loud.  

Every day is a sparkly bead on a string in New Orleans.  Purple is the Mardi Gras color of Justice.  Green is the Mardi Gras color of Faith.  Gold is the Mardi Gras color of Power.  

The leaves never turn in New Orleans.  Every day that isn't Ash Wednesday is one day closer to Mardi Gras.  

Happiness is pandemic in New Orleans, even in repentance.

Love drifts in and out of New Orleans' humidity.  Listen.  If you don't try too hard, you can catch a wish.  Dreams come true in New Orleans.

New Orleans is allergic to hard work but this magical city is never idle.  Something is always percolating in New Orleans.  If you have mojo, you may not make a startling mark here but you'll be happy.  What more is there to ask for?  Laissez les bon temps rouler.  Shooting stars dream of landing in New Orleans.

Even people who sleep in the gutters on Bourbon Street look up to catch a glimpse Heaven.  There is something about the New Orleans cityscape that inspires people to be the best people we can be.  Maybe you know the feeling.  Be a real New Orleanian, wherever you are.

When Nature calls we have to answer.  The same is true when New Orleans calls.  The world is full of mental asylums housing people who refused to answer New Orleans' siren call.  Like Ulysses, they plugged their ears with wax.  Unlike Ulysses, they never reached the end of their odyssey.  New Orleans still waits for them.  Bars are open 24-hours in New Orleans.

The Devil has a branch offices in New Orleans.  You can go to Hell in New Orleans but I wouldn't recommend it.  New Orleans is as close as you can get to Heaven on Earth.  Why screw it up by palling around with the Devil?

Purgatory is full of particular pigeon holes.  New Orleans is wide open for whoever wants to visit.  Once in New Orleans, you will have tasted a sample of paradise.  People are buried above ground in New Orleans for good reasons.  Wanna know why?  Spend at least a week in this wonderful city we call home and you'll get more than one good idea.  You belong in New Orleans.  

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR:

La Belle Esplanade is a five-suite B&B hotel located close to all the tourist must-sees in New Orleans, but, we are in an authentic New Orleans neighborhood where people choose to live, not just to visit.  Visit New Orleans like you mean it.

If you are interested in learning what it means to fall in love with the real New Orleans, La Belle Esplanade has a blog over on their website.  Check it out.  You'll like it.  Poke around their whole website.  When you finally ready to visit New Orleans, you'll know where to stay.  It's the bright orange house with blue shutters on historic and colorful Esplanade Avenue, a 20-minute picturesque stroll from the French Quarter and Frenchmen Street in one direction, and City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art in the other direction.

Follow La Belle Esplanade on Facebook to keep yourself in a New Orleans state of mind.