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Friday 27 April 2018

William Carlos Williams: Porous: Six Poems, 1921-1941 | The disappearing jobs of yesterday | The Wreck of the American Star

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Security personnel have lunch at the Auto China 2018 motor show in Beijing. Photo Jason Lee: image via Reuters Pictures @reutersiuctures, 26 April 2018


The disappearing jobs of yesterday: In Argentina, an umbrella fixer Photo @chatoeitan #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018
 

 In Bulgaria, Vessela Draganova, a camera repairwoman Photo @dilkoff #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


In India, Daya Shankar, a typist who types up legal documents Photo @sanjaykaojia07 #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


In Bangladesh, Mohammad Joynal, an ear cleaner Photo @uz_munir #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


  In Costa Rica, a shoe maker Jesus Lopez Photo Ezequiel Becerra @chatoeitan #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


In Bulgaria, a bookbinder Kalin Daskalov, aka Stopan Photo @dilkoff #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


In India, Syed Zafar Shah runs a gramophone repair operatior Photo @sajjadkmr #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


 In Egypt, a darkroom technician Mohamed el-Maymony Photo @amakar #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


In Colombia, Street clerks are experts in filling out forms, documents and even in typing letters, to help their clients with paperwork Photo @laacostacastro #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018


In Uruguay, a clockkeeper Abdel Ghaffar Photo @pdporciuncula #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 26 April 2018

William Carlos Williams: Porous: Six Poems, 1921-1941


Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Group of automobile crankshafts in junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938  (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: b&w film copy neg. of print

 Automobile parts at junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

William Carlos Williams: Sketch for a Portrait of Henry Ford, 1939


Scrap and salvage depot, Butte, Montana (detail): photo by Russell Lee, October 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

A tin bucket
full of small used parts
nuts and short bolts
slowly draining onto
the dented bottom --
forming a heavy sludge
of oil -- depositing
in its turn steel grit

Hangs on an arm
that whirls it at increasing

velocity around
a central pivot --
suddenly the handle gives
way and the bucket
is propelled through
space  . . . . .


William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): Sketch for a Portrait of Henry Ford, 1939, from Matrix (November-December 1940), in Poems 1939-1944 (1944)



Scrap and salvage depot, Butte, Montana: photo by Russell Lee, October 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress) 


Scrap and salvage depot, Butte, Montana (detail): photo by Russell Lee, October 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

  http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/a/accident/ca/02.jpg
 
The car plummeted off the road into a black abyss.: image by Fiction Illustrated, c. 1953
 
William Carlos Williams: The Term, 1937

File:Destitute man vacant store.gif
 
Great Depression: unemployed, destitute man leaning against vacant store, San Francisco: Dorothea Lange, 1935 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

A rumpled sheet
of brown paper
about the length

and apparent bulk
of a man was
rolling with the

wind slowly over
and over in
the street as

a car drove down
upon it and
crushed it to

the ground. Unlike
a man it rose
again rolling

with the wind over
and over to be as
it was before.

File:Down and out on New York pier.gif

Great Depression: man dressed in worn coat lying down on pier, New York City docks: photo by Lewis W. Hine, 1935 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): The Term, 1937, from Poems 1936-1939 (1939)
 
William Carlos Williams: Porous, 1938

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/affiliates/images/omca/omca_LNG36014.2_1_2.jpg

San Francisco Social Security Office: photo by Dorothea Lange, 1937 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)


Cattail fluff 
blows in
at the bank door,

and on wings
of chance
the money floats out,

lighter than a dream,

through the heavy walls
and vanishes.


http://www.oac.cdlib.org/affiliates/images/omca/omca_LNG34008.1_1_2.jpg

Thirteen Million Unemployed Fill the Cities (Unemployed men, San Francisco): photo by Dorothea Lange, 1937 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): Porous, 1938, from Poems 1936-1939 (1939)

William Carlos Williams: two
from Sour Grapes

photo

Field of daisies and orange flowers, possibly hawkweed, Vermont
: photo by John Collier, June 1943 (Library of Congress)
William Carlos Williams: Daisy, 1921
The dayseye hugging the earth
in August, ha! Spring is
gone down in purple,
weeds stand high in the corn,
the rainbeaten furrow
is clotted with sorrel
and crabgrass, the
branch is black under
the heavy mass of the leaves --
The sun is upon a
slender green stem
ribbed lengthwise.
He lies on his back --
it is a woman also --
he regards his former
majesty and
round the yellow center,
split and creviced and done into
minute flowerheads, he sends out
his twenty rays -- a little
and the wind is among them
to grow cool there!
 
One turns the thing over
in his hand and looks
at it from the rear: brownedged,
green and pointed scales
armor his yellow.
 
But turn and turn,
the crisp petals remain
brief, translucent, greenfastened,
barely touching at the edges:
blades of limpid seashell.
 
File:A Gaenseblume3.JPG

Daisy (Bellis perennis): photo by Friedrich Böhringer, 2007 
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): Daisy, from Sour Grapes (1921)

William Carlos Williams: Arrival, 1921


East Side Interior: Edward Hopper, etching, 1922; image by Thomas Shahan 3, 20 August 2011
(Whitney Museum of American Art)

And yet one arrives somehow,
finds himself loosening the hooks of
her dress
in a strange bedroom --
feels the autumn
dropping its silk and linen leaves
about her ankles.
The tawdry veined body emerges
twisted upon itself
like a winter wind . . . !




Evening Wind: Edward Hopper, etching, 1921; image by Thomas Shahan 3, 30 November 2011 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York)
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): Arrival, from Sour Grapes (1921)

William Carlos Williams: The Thing, 1948


Student life in Radcliffe dormitory: photo by Lynn Miller, n.d., c. 1960s (Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America)

Each time it rings
I think it is for
me but it is
not for me nor for

anyone it merely
rings and we
serve it bitterly
together, they and I

 

William Carlos Williams (1983-1963): The Thing, from The Clouds (1948)


TELEPHONE SERVICE
BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
10/01/1930
p. 9

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service
: Better Homes and Gardens, 1 October 1930 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

TELEPHONE SYSTEM
LIFE
12/12/1938
p. 14

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone systems: Life, 12 December 1936 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

TELEPHONE SERVICE
TIME
06/15/1942
p. 8

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service
: Time, 15 June 1942 (Gallery of Graphic Design)


 
Bench, Austin, Texas: photo by Gary Gumanow, May 2012, posted 6 February 2013
 
TELEPHONE SERVICE
CORONET
07/01/1954
p. 7

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service: Coronet, 1 August 1954 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

William Carlos Williams: The Petunia, 1941

File:Purple Petunia.jpg

Purple petunia: photo by Zirguezi, 2008
Purple!
for months unknown
but for
the barren sky.
 

A purple trumpet fragile
as our hopes
from the very
sand
saluting us.

File:Petunia Hybrida Sweet Sunshine lilac.jpg

Petunia hybrid ("Sweet Sunshine"): photo by Mira, 2008

File:Petunie Sweet Sunshine.JPG

Petunia hybrid ("Sweet Sunshine"): photo by 3268zauber, 2009
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): The Petunia, from Poems 1941 (1941)



Bill Cosby accusers (L-R) Caroline Heldman, Lili Bernard and Victoria Valentino react after the verdict. 'I feel like my faith in humanity is restored,' Bernard told reporters. Photo @mark_makela: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 26 April 2018


#UK Lookalikes of Britain's Prince William, Britain's Prince Harry and Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales pose for a picture in a hot-tub on the Thames to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markel in London. Photo @lealolivas #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 26 April 2018
 

#India Models wait for their turn to walk out on the ramp during a fashion show at the Shazada Nand College in Amritsar. Photo @nanuworld #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 26 April 2018
 

#Myanmar View of ferries travelling from capital Sittwe river port in Rakhine state near Bangladesh border. Photo @ye_aung_thu #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 26 April 2018

The Wreck of the American Star

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/8_-_AmStar_7.JPG/1024px-8_-_AmStar_7.JPG

Wreck of the American Star (formerly SS America), seen from the land side, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: photo by Wollex, 2 July 2004

In abjection after all those variously profitable for various operators years fallen into hands of Greek investors brokedown N Atlantic sprinter w/High Am-Imperial art deco bar and smoking room thorobred now forced much as balky work horse onto storm wracked course in red weather. Second attempt at passage back out into Atlantic interrupted -- propeller screw shot, captain restiveThe driven hulk brought near the parlous shore. Abrupt uplift coming aground on the sandbar. The pounding relentless waves, the ship breaking imminent, futility of whole enterprise apparent now toward end of one-hundred-day tow, crew choppered out, Ukraine tug detached from tow line; nature left to recover its own rusting rejectamenta, gull perched on remnant of funnel uninterestedly looking on.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Ss_america_under_construction.gif
 

Hull of the SS America under construction at Newport News, Virginia: photographer unknown, 1938 (US Maritime Commission / Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b09000/8b09300/8b09308v.jpg
 

Shipbuilding. Newport News, Virginia. A small section of the shipyard, showing an overhead travelling ("Gantry") crane in the foreground. There are two lanes on which ships are being built visible in the picture. The ship at far background is the S.S. America: photo by Alfred T. Palmer, October 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b09000/8b09300/8b09325v.jpg

Newport News, Virginia. General view of the fitting and repair slips at Newport News, Virginia. The S.S. America can be seen in the background. The ship in the adjacent slip is a tanker
: photo by Alfred T. Palmer, October 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)


http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05332r.jpg


S.S. America, United States Lines, Ballroom I: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
(the New York modernist interior decorating firm of Miriam Smyth, Anne Urquhart and Dorothey Marckwald were the first female interior designers of an ocean liner): photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc. (Samuel Gottscho/William Schleissner), 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05335r.jpg

S.S. America, United States Lines, Barroom I: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05336r.jpg

S.S. America, United States Lines, Barroom II: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05348r.jpg

S.S. America, United States Lines, Smoking room, looking to bar: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05349r.jpg

S.S. America, United States Lines, Smoking room, looking to mural: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05350r.jpg

S.S. America, United States Lines, Smoking room, end detail: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05300/5a05367r.jpg

S.S. America, United States Lines, Swimming pool: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator
: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

 
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05700/5a05792r.jpg
 

S.S. America, United States Lines, Shopping centre I: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gsc/5a05000/5a05700/5a05789r.jpg

 

S.S. America, United States Lines, Desk detail, Suite U49: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

OCEAN LINER TRAVEL
TIME
08/17/1953
p. 1
 
United States Lines advertisement: Time, 17 August 1953 (via Gallery of Graphic Design)

Returned to the United States Lines and converted back to civilian service on 31 August 1946, the America continued to carry passengers between New York and Europe into October 1964, when, with the advent of stiffer international competition in the transoceanic shipping business and the success of the larger, more luxurious United States, she was sold to the Chandris Line, a Greek firm, renamed Australis and operated as a passenger ship on cruises to the Far East and South Pacific into 1977. Between 1978 and 1994 the ship's condition deteriorated as she changed ownership several times. In 1993 she was renamed American Star and on New Years Eve left Greece for the last time, under tow by a Ukrainian tugboat and bound for Thailand where she was to be refitted as a five-star luxury hotel ship. Heavy North Atlantic thunderstorms broke the tow lines; the American Star was abandoned and left adrift, with the forward part of the ship aground on a sandbar; under the assault of heavy surf, within 48 hours she had broken in two just past the second funnel. Her fate entangled in negotiations between owners, towing firm and insurance companies, she was now in the hands of nature. On 6 July 1994 she was declared a total loss. In 1996 her stern section collapsed completely to port side and sank, with the bow continuing to remain intact. In November 2005 the port side of the bow section collapsed. With the remains of the ship now listing sharply, her remaining funnel detached and fell into the ocean. The hull now began to break up;  by October 2006 the wreck had collapsed almost completely onto its  port side. In April 2007 the starboard side collapsed, the wreck broke in half and fell into the sea, with the remains slowly disappearing beneath the waves. As of February 2012, only a few feet of the once proud liner remained above water line.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/American_star_vom_felsen.JPG/1024px-American_star_vom_felsen.JPG   

Wreck of SS American Star (formerly SS America), grounded at Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: photo by Pindakas, December 2003

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/5_-_AmStar_4_userbox_crop.JPG
 
Wreck of the American Star (formerly SS America), front view (cropped): photo by Wollex, 2 July 2004

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/3_-_AmStar_2.JPG/1024px-3_-_AmStar_2.JPG  

Wreck of the American Star (formerly SS America), seen from middle distance, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: photo by Wollex, 2 July 2004
 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/SSAMSTAR06.jpg/1024px-SSAMSTAR06.jpg
 

The former SS America, now beached and disintegrating on the island of Fuerteventura: photo by Ian Pullen, September 2006

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Fuerteventura_2007_029.jpg/1024px-Fuerteventura_2007_029.jpg
 
Shipbreaking in progress: wreck of the SS American Star: photo by Michael Wunsch, 9 August 2007

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Bugteil_im_September_2009.jpg
 
Front section of the wrecked and sunken American Star: the last visible part of a grand old lady of the world's oceans: photo by Thomas Fietzek, September 2009

4 comments:

Bowie Hagan said...

Tom,

Enjoyed these poems from William Carlos Williams. I couldn't help reflecting on the correspondence between his poem, "Porous" and the prayers of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost that pass "Dimensionless through Heavenly doors" to be reformed "Before the Father's throne" in (XI.14-20). The money just goes away. Hope all's well.

Best,
Bowie

TC said...

Thank you Bowie. Bill was perhaps anticipating a cashless economy - those lovely, if deceptive "wings of chance". But of course any Vegas lifer will tell you there is no such thing as chance, at least 81% of the time. On the related interesting issue of Divine Providence (is there or isn't there?), JM's troika choice option always seemed to apply, Fixed Fate, Absolute Foreknowledge, and ... that third one tends to stick in the works a bit, where is the WD-40?... can't keep from lurching back into archeology... let's see... there was the 4-F Club... not so much with the Divine, there, though...

Not so hard to figure out how we tumbled out of Paradise, really.

But maybe the Wayback machine is fooling us on that one too I hope!!

TC said...

Oh, Freedom. Right.

Like recalling alphabet but forgetting the "A".

Ha. D minus.

TC said...

(Not forgetting the school where A minus was considered an insult, so the over-under always had to start at A+/-, with heavy lean toward the even.)