now, the verticals go down as well as they go up

Tags

1970s, 1980s, 2015, alley, architecture, awning, buildings, chimney, city, colour, Daredevil, dark, dawn, drawing, Edward Hopper, form, Frank Miller, ground, hearing, height, identity, landscape, leisure, listening, litter, notice, orange, rain, rooftops, seeing, shops, silhouette, sitting, snow, sound, streetlight, streets, suburbia, tarmac, vertical

                now, the verticals go down as well as they go up

                                the form of
                                architecture
                                is drawn
                                by rain

                                streetlights
                                merely cast
                                the silhouettes
                                of dawn

                                in the 70s
                                and the 80s
                                the shops
                                opened late

                                like Hopper
                                landscapes
                                foretending
                                leisure

                                sleet down
                                an alley when
                                there are things
                                to be done

                                (cab waiting
                                with the meter
                                running) but
                                when it snows

                                it is time to sit
                                on a ledge and
                                listen to all the
                                muffled sound

                                below; lighted
                                billboards and
                                the uplit facades
                                of monoliths

                                above the
                                chimney stacks,
                                only when
                                sprung from

                                girders can you
                                hang foetus-like
                                above the roof-
                                tops; let all the

                                striving height
                                recede back
                                to the ground
                                it stands from

                                assassins and
                                bounty hunters
                                proceed colourful
                                and silent by the

                                dark rooftops
                                of old town
                                suburbia, only
                                the blind devils

                                leap the burning
                                awnings more
                                bright than day,
                                where only one

                                will notice from
                                the street, and
                                yet the fantastic
                                storeys of

                                orange-corporate
                                building rise
                                ineluctable
                                behind all

                                borough, seen
                                but not heard;
                                except for the
                                litter of paper

                                trailing the collateral
                                dance across tarmac
                                and paviours, hardly
                                noticed, but ever indulged

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

architecture wormhole: House by the Railroad, 1925
buildings wormhole: dream 260815
chimney wormhole: silhouette: // second / thoughts
city wormhole: Morning in a City, 1944
Daredvil wormhole: tag cloud poem V – draft-ness
dawn & orange wormhole: gre[wh]y / has Daddy left us?
Edward Hopper wormhole: Summertime, 1943
identity & streets wormhole: ‘from under the awning …’
rain wormhole: open window
rooftops wormhole: House by the Railroad, 1925
seeing & sound wormhole: after all?
shops wormhole: that comicbookshop in dreams,
silhouette wormhole: 1959
sitting wormhole: Ashdown Forest / 080213 14:47
snow wormhole: To my Mum
streetlight wormhole: the / very gradual art of sitting

 

Bodiam Castle

Tags

2015, blue, castle, chimney, fire, France, green, invasion, leaf, power, privilege, refugees, river, sky, society, soldier, terrorism, time, vertical, war, windows, world

 

 

Edward Dalyngrigge made money as a mercenary soldier, fighting endlessly against France, then married Elizabeth, the heiress of the Wardedieu, to build a castle to defend against invasion looking fabulous (oh, and build a wharf on the river Rother to benefit from the trade).   It looks fabulous to this day but has defended only right and privilege.

 

                                Bodiam Castle

                                perpendicular-only
                                view of the world

                                through metre-age
                                of sandstone, so I

                                looked straight up
                                the chimney where

                                perpetual fires no
                                longer burned and

                                saw transluscent leaf
                                lean against blue sky

 

We live in a much more settled world now, comfortable by our ruined castles and retired landscapes.   The nearest incursions are on the beaches of Tunisia, although there is worry at the port of Calais.

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

blue wormhole: the art of sit and follow
chimney wormhole: events happen / through all measure of name
green & windows wormhole: good session
power wormhole: bottom of Herbert Road to the / foot of Eglinton Hill dream
river wormhole: let’s have some ice creams
sky wormhole: Exceat to Cuckmere Haven
society wormhole: any answers
time wormhole: earthed
war wormhole: castrated
world wormhole: nothing // matters

 

up here

Tags

'scape, 1970, 1972, 2015, architecture, birds, buildings, cars, city, clouds, eyes, Gil Kane, identity, John Romita, knowledge, life, light, moon, people, perspective, presumption, rooftops, Roy Thomas, searching, seeing, shops, sky, skyline, society, sound, speech, Spiderman, Stan Lee, step, streets, thinking, time, venetian blinds, vertical, walking, walls, windows, years

                                deep down
                in the streets light can only be noticed
                between step and event all the while slogans
                are shouting high and huddled to the
                                              receding
                                              rooftops

                                but the streets
                can be taken sideways (from third floor up) with
                panned vista of skyline for all to see; me, I crouch at right angles
                to the depth-rise of sky-plummet
                                              searching
                                              for the

                                (pinnacles
                amid stacks of façade discerned by ledge and cornice
                sheer sides with no purchase beautiful for all their …
                                              stark
                                              knowledge)

                                I find ways in,
                over rather than through, the vertical line
                that makes architecture wide such that up can only reach higher
                                              the better
                                              for me
                                              to arc

                                impossible
                through all manner of event
                and despite all presumption – birds flattering in all
                                              direction –

                                up here
                among the sooty stacks
                I know my footing up sides of wall
                while those below stand scattered about the ground
                                              pointing

                                up here
                                on the stack
                birds make their way in occasional formation despite cloud
                and measure, where on the ground there is no parking despite time
                                              from
                                              high

                                up here
                people walk the streets like filings
                still warm from the splinter but magnetised in damaged clumps
                they let the lonely antennae do all the
                                              tensile
                                              thinking

                                thinking
                                thoughts
                are best done above the storeyline, clung to the outside, lean and breathtaken
                (otherwise they get flabby) the angle always far better
                                              as nadir

                                rooftops
                higher than most are perspectives in which to dress
                that allow vault and flagpole-spring to one façade or another
                whilst people stand around at parties, their backs to the windows, unaware
                                              of their own
                                              identities

                                I will walk
                up to the window below, cars parked variously on the street,
                stacks of elegant housing ignore the open-air caught and struggle with
                                              venetian
                                              eyes

                                the up-
                                rumble
                of the city may be constant but only noticeable
                when strangled, oh, where is the moon waiting below rooftops
                to make shop fronts blind and apartments
                                              contemplative?

 

plucked in passing overhead from the pages of Spider-Man #90-113 (November 1970 – October 1972), written by Stan Lee & Roy Thomas; drawn by Gil Kane and John Romita

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

architecture & buildings & people & seeing & sky wormhole: Brugges April 2015 – looking lost
1972 wormhole: 1972
birds wormhole: purpose
cars & walking wormhole: “King …”
city wormhole: events happen / through all measure of name
clouds wormhole: hot summer / morning
eyes & sound & walls & windows wormhole: Jackie’s slight smile
identity & thinking & time wormhole: [start where you are III] – delve
knowledge wormhole: the Apple
life & speech wormhole: out side of the writing / lodge
moon wormhole: tag cloud poem VIII – growth
rooftops wormhole: sight / seeing
searching & streets wormhole: Dionne Warwick
shops & society & years wormhole: 1959
skyline wormhole: gazing at the night / as my eyes passed the jagged hole / my head disappeared
venetian blids wormhole: 1963

 

Kirby’s landscapes

Tags

'scape, 2014, 6*, bridge, buildings, fashion, gold, haiku, hair, head, iron, Jack Kirby, Manhattan, pavement, people, reaching, river, roads, rooftops, seeing, shadow, sky, stone, streets, trees, vertical

 

 

 

                                  Kirby’s landscapes

                                 among the street trees
                           and trouser shadows people
                              struggle with fashion

                                           but few look to the
                           rooftops where the reach of arm
                                can span neighbourhoods

                              and monuments, stacked
                           to pinnacle bricked to stand,
                              the lens is mistrust-

                                         worthy – the shift of
                           golden hair – between the streets
                                and blocks of façade

                            where bridges raise the
                           access, lower the canyon
                            to the river that

                                        knows no busy-ness
                           ranged wide along its banks and
                               harbours, failure to

                            see this tips buildings
                           beyond the vertical, you
                            cannot have angle

                                  on a pavement on
                           a road, elegant stonework
                              curling ironwork

                                     won’t allow it while
                           the hats of heads vie with sky
                              line, you see, billboards

                                           and water towers
                           have been made redundant but
                                they had class and style

 

most of the images for this were reaped and harvested from The Fantastic Four #95, February 1970; plot: Stan Lee; art and storytelling: Jack Kirby; it was only after I put the finishing touches to the ‘billboards’ and ‘water towers’ in the last stanza that I realised it was all ABOUT Jack Kirby; have a lookit: this; and, maybe, also … this:

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

bridge wormhole: dream / 150599
buildings & sky wormhole: Dr Strange V – all the words of all the times of all the worlds speak
gold wormhole: Christmas
haiku(esque) wormhole: ‘the blues shifted …’
hair wormhole: knees
Manhattan wormhole: introducing / the stranger
people wormhole: smiling
river & shadow & streets wormhole: Plumstead – Woolwich – Plumstead 290508 – / the breath of London
roads wormhole: bass and piano
rooftops wormhole: never there
seeing wormhole: Dr Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street
stone wormhole: the precision // the gentleness // and / the letting go
trees wormhole: Plumstead – Woolwich 121114

 

in the middle of silence and heat:

Tags

'scape, 2014, 5*, breathing, Carol, conservatory, feet, German, heat, horizontal, love, portrait, roof, shadow, silence, smell, sound, speech, sun, time, toes, vertical

 

 

 

                      there they are – those feet –
                      up on the arm of the settee
                      one heel laying the foot along
                      (as far as a curve will allow)
                      the other pinioned above
                      hanging over the other’s arch
                      (exquisite close shadow)
                      curving vertical the sole almost
                      crease-free the big ole toe-pad
                      making a long curve 80º to the
                      arch, a pennant – a solitary bunt –
                      two toes tent pegs sticking up
                      (only one on the other foot)
                      two bubble toes (three) like buds
                      (smell relaxed and natural
                       when up close) …

                      … don’t even shift when the
                      door drifts slightly shut or the
                      plastic roof expands in the sun
                      and the roof-of-the-mouth-
                      breathing pauses … (held?) but
                      in the middle of silence and heat:
                      “wie viel Uhr ist es?” even though
                      she doesn’t naturally speak German
                      and neither do I understand
                      to reply

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

breathing wormhole: ‘when it came / time to go …’
C & conservatory wormhole: tag cloud poem IV – C
feet & silence wormhole: St. Ludwigskirche
love wormhole: they find their life growing together –
roof & shadow wormhole: … still waving!
speech wormhole: a splash of fresh water
sun wormhole: the chiropodist
time wormhole: titanic