Posts tagged ‘city decay’
MY ATTEMPT AT WRITING POETRY: CAMERA’S EYE
For a while I was living in Newark, New Jersey, working in the Bronx and driving to work on the New Jersey Turnpike. The drive took me through the marsh between Newark and the Hudson River. Along the way I noticed a small dock with a boat or two there. The surrounding area was less than attractive but, in my mind, I would imagine the dock on a tranquil lake or on an inlet leading to the ocean. This poem is the result of those thoughts.
The following poem was published in the Clover Collection of Verse Vol. XII, edited by Evelyn Petry, in 1976.
CAMERA’S EYE
Camera’s eye catches delicate flowers,
Views the graceful bee in pollination flight,
Spies the brushing of pollen – laden stamens,
Holds in time a scene most tranquil;
Yet does not discover the roadside trash,
The flower’s home amid mud and mire;
Does not smell the exhaust raining acid
On delicate flowers.
Camera’s eye gazes upon a child framed in a window,
Beholds the easy lean of chin in palm, elbow on windowsill,
Wide eyes looking out at the world in wonder,
Knows the innocent child – wisdom;
Yet ignores the window’s building,
Screens out the ghetto of rotted houses and dreams.
MY ATTEMPT AT WRITING POETRY: CITY DEATH
Published by New Worlds Unlimited in Whispers of the Unchained Heart in 1977.
CITY DEATH
Gone-
Murdered by concrete
And polluted air,
Witness to city’s growth,
Yielding shade on sultry days,
Forming crystalline sculptures in winter,
Morning drones with saws,
A barren stump your marker,
Death your reward.