New Cities/New Soviets

September 22, 2005

Whitman's New York

Whitman's New York

reading in the bookstore the other day...

City of Orgies

City of orgies, walks and joys,
City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one
day make you illustrious
Not the pageant of you, not your shifting tableaus, your
spectacles, repay me,
Not the interminable rows of your houses, nor the ships at
the wharves
Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright windows with
goods in them,
Nor to converse with learn'd persons, or bear my share in the
soiree or feast;
Not those, but as I pass O Manhattan, your frequent and swift
flash of eyes offering me love,
Offering response to my own--these repay me,
Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.


-----
Not unfamiliar to this feeling, yet also it
can become a burden
if pressed

the passage of others a testament to something
denied (not offered)
lost (not found)

i have known this too


how light are the particles that thus keep the poet aloft!


this is not a feeling to be pressed (?)
not a feeling to carry weight (?)
not a feeling to change the world (?)
it is as is -- and nothing more?

Posted by Sam at September 22, 2005 06:17 AM

yes
u see a hunger in the urban eye these days

the mask can't hide
the eyes can' it
the eyes
ziped out
on ungratified passions

windows into
souls on stretch pay


Posted by: pinky at September 25, 2005 09:11 AM

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