I feel as though I was on the train with you! I used to commute from Suffolk County to Manhattan on the Long Island Railroad each M-F and I remember thinking about all the people in the rundown homes by the tracks...studying their laundry lines, the dilapidated pool in the backyard, the faded pink bike unused for years. Everything told a story.
Beautiful work, your piece stirred a lot of thoughts! Indeed, much of the countryside represents a set of unfinished stories written on fading paper that speaks to what was and is no more. Barely anyone cares to read these stories anymore, but they happened and those stories have allowed us to write our own. I feel a sadness that it is increasingly difficult to both live in a small town where I can be known and also make a good living.
The precision of your imagery immerses the reader into this scene with a bracing yet atoning force. As a native Midwesterner, I recognize all too well the “gone-under towns” and appreciate the way you dignify these marginalized & neglected regions with the “spectral fluorescence” of your lyrical gifts.
WOW! That's one of the best revelations of our boom-and-bust country. The Rust Belt of the Midwest, the ghost towns of the Great Basin, the ruins of iconic gas stations along Route 66 expressed all in one vision from a train window. Bravo!
As someone who loves train travel, I believe you have beautifully captured my thoughts while I stare out --through ALWAYS grimy windows -- my train travels. I always try to imagine what it might have been.
I feel as though I was on the train with you! I used to commute from Suffolk County to Manhattan on the Long Island Railroad each M-F and I remember thinking about all the people in the rundown homes by the tracks...studying their laundry lines, the dilapidated pool in the backyard, the faded pink bike unused for years. Everything told a story.
wow the imagery! the "reds and yellows melding into metal husks" -
I have never seen so few words so beautifully capture the tragedy of lost industrial greatness.
This is stunning!
I hope this poem went through lots of revisions, because it is masterful; and I'd be envious if you created it in one session!!!
This phrase: weeds in wind-knit quilts. WOW.
Beautiful, filled me with nostalgia for a thing I haven’t lost.
Beautiful work, your piece stirred a lot of thoughts! Indeed, much of the countryside represents a set of unfinished stories written on fading paper that speaks to what was and is no more. Barely anyone cares to read these stories anymore, but they happened and those stories have allowed us to write our own. I feel a sadness that it is increasingly difficult to both live in a small town where I can be known and also make a good living.
So wonderful. Sigh… to have that talent.
The precision of your imagery immerses the reader into this scene with a bracing yet atoning force. As a native Midwesterner, I recognize all too well the “gone-under towns” and appreciate the way you dignify these marginalized & neglected regions with the “spectral fluorescence” of your lyrical gifts.
I love this!
This is so wonderful. The images are so clear. I'm right there with you.
WOW! That's one of the best revelations of our boom-and-bust country. The Rust Belt of the Midwest, the ghost towns of the Great Basin, the ruins of iconic gas stations along Route 66 expressed all in one vision from a train window. Bravo!
I woke up to weeds in wind-knit quilts
folded over track-side ditches
So many brilliant images and high and low vibe sounds. Love it.
Beautiful imagery. The scenery from a train window - it brings back memories from a long time ago.
As someone who loves train travel, I believe you have beautifully captured my thoughts while I stare out --through ALWAYS grimy windows -- my train travels. I always try to imagine what it might have been.
It truly takes my breath away.