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Sunday 21 July 2013

Wooden Boy: Bus note 63


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The Bearwood High Street at the junction of St Marys Road: photo by Mark McQuilty (Tingy), 28 October 2005



        Top deck
        side lights:
a seizure trigger;
neon spectral shimmer;
        false movement;
        backwards wave.
Her same-difference
piebald hair over there.
        The corner:
        Bearwood High St.
        strewn
        with bruised fruit.



Wooden Boy: Bus note 63, from The Little Wooden Boy, 20 July 2013





Avarcardo. Box of avarcardos outside Inter Supermarket, High Street, Bearwood: photo by Keith Bloomfield, 17 February 2011


Leafy shop, Bearwood High Street: photo by Marios Hadjianastasis (marios_h), 11 December 2010


3, 2, 1... It's Rusty Bin. A rusting bin on Bearwood High Street, photo by Keith Bloomfield, 18 August 2011


Refined lady, Bearwood High Street: photo by Alex Mason (Bikeygeek2010), 9 February 2011


"Buildings are like humans and have their own character" -- Alexey Titarenko. Bearwood High Street: photo by Alex Mason (Bikeygeek2010), 19 September 2011


 Bearwood High Street 2: photo by Alex Mason (Bikeygeek2010), 19 September 2011



Bearwood Pawn Shop. #45 "See the characters but create your own plot" -- Martin Kollar. Bearwood High Street: photo by Alex Mason (Bikeygeek2010), 7 August 2011



4273 BU51 RWW VOLVO B7 ALX 400 GA-WB DDLF delivered new to the fleet 23-Jan-02, seen working service 82 on Bearwood High Street: photo by 3000 F300 xof (AKA Celestial Toymaker), 12 July 2011


Bearwood High Street: photo by Roger Jones ((RogerJ2009), 15 December 2011

11 comments:

TC said...

We would regard a poetic transit system as essential.

Though in its absence, as we are constantly reminded, even a prosaic semblance would do.

In any case, we are in good hands this time round, as fortunately our conductor once again is the alert and trusty Duncan Jones.

Wooden Boy: Bus notes 4

Wooden Boy: Bus notes 5

Wooden Boy: Bus Notes 11 (A Black Country Outing)

Wooden Boy: Bus note 31

Wooden Boy: Bus note 35

Wooden Boy: Bus note 39

Be the BQE said...

Tom - I love the pairing of the Wooden Boy poem (new to me) with the Bearwood High Street corner photo. The photo reminds me a bit of a recent Ken Jacobs film I saw at MOMA: Waiting for the Broadway Bus. KJ made it in real time at night with a small digital video camera: lots of blurring, swirling lights.

Keep up the fight for a poetic transit system!

David

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Thanks Tom and Wooden Boy for this -- gives new meaning to Kesey's "on the bus" . . .


7.21

grey whiteness of fog against invisible
ridge, hummingbird whirring at lavender
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

relationship to moment part
of present, one thing

one has, those that lead to
this, there is enough

grey white fog against invisible ridge,
line of pelicans flapping toward point

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

“We Buy Gold Any Condition” – in the instance of Duncan Jones, poetry appraised as being in excellent condition; what’s more, it’s free of charge, thanks to the TCPTS.

Simon Howard said...

There's something rather lovely about

strewn
with bruised fruit

following the strangely vulnerable strength of Bearwood High Street

I still follow your blog closely Tom, your lovely assemblages of words & images. It's a difficult time here; my mother's had a stroke & I'm very caught up in that.

Simon

TC said...

Thanks to all on behalf of Wooden Boy and the people and photographers of South West Birmingham. A fierce loyalty to the place is what they have in common.

Yes, Vassilis, Duncan's work sets the gold standard. Any condition.

David, I fear it's a losing battle, with few allies. Still we persist -- the forlorn hope.

(I notice the Birmingham Outer Ring buses run every eight minutes. We have something like that here too... only it's more like every eight days.)

Simon, those lines you've quoted drew me into this poem straight off. Apart from the subtle brilliance of the internal and off-rhyming, "strewn / with bruised fruit" could apply in some other dimensions as well.

Very sorry to hear about your mother. Strokes and yours truly, a connection more intimate than bears relating. So, much sympathy, and I do hope she gets through it.

Everyone's too bruised and banged up these days.

Dalriada said...

Of course being such a small country Tom an effective public transport system is more feasible in the UK Arguably there is more demand and expectation for it being somewhat affordable and effective there Cities do better Many of the buses and bus routes between towns have been axed over the decades Nothing can compete with the private box on 4 wheels it would appear You have your own axe to grind where that is concerned I understand I didn't drive before coming to the US I held out til I was 45

Unknown said...

This IS a poetic transit system

Harris Schiff

Unknown said...

I took a vow not to participate in the car system in 2005 -- not to own one, nor share one with "family". I just could not be part of that oil gas car thing any more except taxi, bus, hitchike.

Harris

Unknown said...

PTS - Invisible Ridge

“Watch me now” --- Jimi Hendrix
ES says “You’re being watched.”
Seizure trigger
I take two for pain
Risky
Like top heavy bus on slick pavement
Take CG AB or CD
Dizzying
General Motors
General Dynamics
General Electric &
General Lightning
All be havin special offers this decade
Marketing rusty garbage cans

TV for when the power goes down


Harris Schiff

TC said...

A definite soupçon of plus ça change in the air. History, one long seizure trigger.

The hour was already getting late....

...was it tomorrow or just the end of time?