Wednesday 17 March 2010

Parade


.

Monedero system installed, but "Esperando Conexión CERRADO" by blmurch.



Traffic backs
up behind the parked
and disabled
bus, and behind
that, in a battered
sedan, a woman
and a man
quarrel fiercely.
Get the fuck
out of my car! she
screams loud
enough for those
passing by not
to be able
to not hear. A few
blocks later the young
man in the passenger
seat at whom
she had screamed
appears in the slow
parade of speech
less private walkers,
as the night again
comes on.




File:US DontWalk Traffic Signal.JPG





Monedero system installed, but "Esperando Conexíon CERRADO" (Buenos Aires): photo by blmurch, 2009
"Don't Walk" traffic signal, New York City: photo by Fb78, 2007
at

10 comments:

  1. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE17 March 2010 at 08:11

    Tom,

    Nice to see these TWO photos (one here and the other with "Flow") from Beatrice -- as 'connections' across continents, something the eye SEES even as it also READS these words. . . .

    3.17

    blinding silver circle of sun in clouds
    above ridge, streaked sparrow on feeder
    in foreground, wave sounding in channel

    eye, would animate material
    vision accompanied by

    content, self-consciousness
    “attention” to effect

    clouds on horizon to the left of point,
    wingspan of pelican flapping toward it

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  2. u.v.ray.17 March 2010 at 08:52

    I love these types of poem that are snapshots of a moment in time. A little mundane incident happening in the life of someone else on the other side of the world, to which I would otherwise not been witness.

    Captured so well.

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  3. aditya17 March 2010 at 12:47

    You had me spellbound here, Tom. Impeccably structured. A moment passing in time captured brilliantly.

    Pure magic !!! Bravooo !!!

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  4. human being17 March 2010 at 13:15

    sometimes it's much better to walk... especially when you have been in a 'my car!' for a long while...
    and no traffic jams stop you when you walk...
    :)


    your poem walks too...
    and i liked these two steps very much:


    'not
    to be able
    to not hear.'

    (fusion of two nothingness is something, eh?)



    'A few
    blocks later'

    (fusion of time and place is a journey)



    as always... you say a lot in a few words and images...

    ReplyDelete
  5. ~otto~17 March 2010 at 14:35

    This just sounds great in my ear, the negative:

    "not
    to be able
    to not hear"

    Great image you've created. I don't miss driving.

    ReplyDelete
  6. aditya17 March 2010 at 16:43

    @ HB

    I like your perspectives and views. As always.

    The fusion of 2 nothingness is certainly something. Tom certainly has a knack of doing that (of what I have read of him). Pleasure reading you, Tom ..

    ReplyDelete
  7. human being18 March 2010 at 00:05

    thanks dear friend, aditya...

    Tom is a river... running deep...
    crows just prattle...

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. TC18 March 2010 at 02:27

    Steve,

    Elation ("blinding silver circle") in your 3/17.

    You'll have noticed Bea's pelicans on the post above this ("Flow").

    For that matter, come to think of it: your flapping pelican may well be one of them.


    Ray,

    Thanks, the good word means much coming from you.

    You do those "captures" so well, too, from your side of the world, as witnessed.


    Aditya,

    Many thanks, my friend. Yes, the moment. It was in fact last night.

    I later caught up with the young man in the street, and heard his side of the story.

    Tonight I saw him again, from a distance. This time on foot.


    Otto and hb,

    Ah, the double negative. There are so many of those in life.

    (For me it was stumbling into that double-blind that awakened the notation. Sometimes the thing is not there until you trip over it in the dark.)

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  9. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE18 March 2010 at 08:13

    Tom,

    Ah, I hadn't thought of that until now, resonance between Bea's pelicans on the lagoon and mine, having left the lagoon, flapping toward point. Parallelism of universes (again) ----

    3.18

    yellow-orange light in sky above shoulder
    of ridge, motionless green leaf in left
    foreground, waves sounding in channel

    attention to side different
    from what it was, yet,

    in which thing shows itself,
    “seeing,” looking and

    white cloud in pale blue sky above point,
    sunlit green top of ridge across from it

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  10. .20 March 2010 at 14:57

    Sometimes i struggle with such poems because my head is flighty but you pin them down perfectly. An absolute pleasure.

    ReplyDelete