POEM: A FEW MORE POTTED POEMS

 

 

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is everywhere.

It’s in the first breath and the last.

It’s in the long sounding

of church bells

and in the songs of days.

It’s in children’s laughter

and summer ponds,

and paths that wind forever.

It’s in every breath

of every leaf and flower.

 

Forgiveness fills memory’s rooms 

with purpose:

It orders things.

And so, in the stone towers

where offerings burn in hot fires,

forgiveness tempers the flames

with clay tablets and baking pots.

 

Forgiveness is everywhere around us,

now, and in the abiding blue

of our world,

Amen.

 

How Odd

How odd it was

It came that I,

Not he, it seems,

Had want to die.

 

Actor

Pushing along

membranes.

Following (inside)

the skin of a joke

or some wailing

sadness

—the stretching

friction of a line—

to its end.

And only later

looking out

for applause.

 

Upon Taking

Viagra*

I woke stirred

but not shaken—

a spy among the spry!

 

The Silence

of Crows

Through hills and fields,

absent of crows,

ancient stone yields

wild seed that grows—

Seed come from seams

too old to tell

if withered by stream

or whether by well.

The difference is lost now,

as in all ends.

And of the cost now?

See first amends.

 

Lines of Pain

Amid flashes

of coloured lights,

and over lands

as vast and empty

as the salt-sown plains

of Carthage

I fly on metal wings.

Below me lay

lines of pain.

Burning lines.

 

To the Drowned

To the sun I fly.

There I will have no malice

for those singing below,

whose voices rise

to wind my heart

in lines as long and strong

as the world.

There I will be free!

I will see light lift

from the waters

and wash across the land.

 

Spring Wish

To taste blood and salt

in equal measure.

To ride the tide

of worldly things

like a ship at full sail.

To grow as a mountain grows,

and move like water,

laughing, over a brook’s

silken stones.

Wedding Gift

At dusk on a hill,

the fruit husk

drying in the wind—

My final gift to you.

 

 

I THREW UP a few poems for your perusal, some old, some new, mostly low-tek, simple, user-friendly—you don’t need a manual to read them. Overall, a more somber group and a somewhat rickety assemblage of words, but hey, it’s Covid and what can I say? Enjoy or delete; it all comes out in the wash.

But leaving word constructions aside, I want briefly to talk about building constructions—not the one metastasizing next door, but a couple of gawd-awful monstrosities reviewed in James Howard Kunstler’s recent June blog post.

 

    "Little Island"

THIS PROJECT, called "Little Island", and recently completed in NYC, looks like a giant’s mini-putt hole to me. So, what was the idea? Build an islet in the middle of the harbour district; fill it with truckloads of dirt; plant a few trees and create venues and entertainments to attract crowds of nature-starved New Yorkers? If you build it—they may not come. It’s about as ‘natural’ as AstroTurf and as appealing as last week’s lunch. It seems a long way to go and a dumpster load of disappointment once you're there. Interestingly, the pier it squats on was where survivors of the Titanic landed in 1912. (I’m sure a Titanic-themed waterslide is in the works.) This wreck of a park fails to replicate any kind of natural environment, and doesn’t make it as a city park, either. It just isn't a place where most people would want to spend their time. Good job, guys!

JHK reminds us that harbours are meant for ships, shipping and all that sort of stuff. Is this silly theme-park what NYC and builders should be spending their time and money on?

 

    "The Vessel"

MY SECOND EXAMPLE OF URBAN UGLINESS IS FROM 2016, and JHK's review of a rather unpleasant-looking structure, designed by the same architect who created the Pier 54 boner, Thomas Heatherwick. Artfully dubbed “The Vessel”, it was to be a place for people to stroll around in during their lunch hour. In his review, JHK suggests (tongue-in-cheek) this dystopian, esher-esque structure is better suited as a place from which people would want to jump to their deaths. And sure enough, in 2021, following the third suicide in less than a year, the walkway was "temporarily closed while the company consults with experts on how to prevent future suicides." And looking at photographs of the place, I'd be more than tempted to take the big step! Chalk up another win for ugly urban design!

My favourite Canadian picks from JHK’s “Eyesore of the Month” selection are Calgary's proposed National Music Centre and Brantford Ontario’s new "brutalist" style courthouse.**

    WTF!?!

BUT MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE is Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and its horrid “Giant Space Goitre” addition. Even after all this time, its jaw-dropping ugliness still causes the gorge to rise in my throat every time I see it! Museum patrons should be issued air-sick bags when they pay their admission.

Such architectural carbuncles don’t take into consideration the public space or how human beings inhabit, engage, perceive, understand and are affected by the built environment around them. They are examples of hubris, of course, and short-sighted thinking. On the other hand, there are many examples of cityscapes that do provide liveable, functioning, human-scaled environments that make sense to people. For example, many European cities still fit the bill, despite the EU's efforts at homogenizing the continent and depredations from global capitalism. Much of their architectural heritage and city plans will remain intact, going forward, while in North America, unfortunately, many of our cities will not stand the test of time.

 

Cheers, Jake.

 

 

  

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*For the record, I have never taken, nor ever have I felt the need to take “male enhancement” products. ‘Nuff said.

 

**A good litmus test for people who want to decide what’s valuable and important to them in their built environments: Which tugs at the heartstrings more—a fire that destroys a 19th Century former city hall structure or one that guts a Walmart Super Store?

 

[See JHK’s seminal 1993 book on urban planning, The Geography of Nowhere, and check out the early years of his podcast at his website that are devoted to cities and urban issues.]