Hudson River, summer 2010.
Hudson River.
We were flashing through Central Park, now completely transformed by the snow. It was as though we had plunged suddenly into mid-country peace, yet I knew that here, somewhere close by in the night, there was a zoo with its dangerous animals. The lions and tigers in heated cages, the bears asleep, the snakes coiled tightly underground. And there was also the reservoir of dark water, all covered by snow and by night, by snow-fall and night-fall, buried beneath black and white, grey mist and grey silence.
—Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
There are worse places to be waiting for the train.
imarobeast asked: I'm sorry, you realize the river that runs along Brooklyn is the East River, and not the Hudson, right?
Yeah, but I liked the rhythm of “Hudson” better than “East River.” And I figured that since the Hudson splits into the East River it kind of counted …
And you’re referring to this, right?
“the charter school did it”
We returned from Spring Break to find this new floor in the basement, where the charter school will be moving in. Of course, there are no new floors anywhere else in the building. The blue was shocking. I heard one adorable student say, “I don’t know how to swim, Mister.” Another said, “They spent their money on something stupid. We don’t need new tiles.” And another said, “I think the charter school did it.” All of these students will, I’m sure, be surprised to see the changes yet to come.
If you squint, you can make out my name on the broadside …
I’m reading tomorrow as part of InDigest Issue #23’s Launch Party, along with Christopher Salerno, Alethea Black, Robb Todd, Dana Rossi, and Stephen Massimilla.
7 pm, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleeker Street. Free!
96 Vandam
Gerald Stern & coffee to wake up:
I am going to carry my bed into New York City tonight
complete with dangling sheets and ripped blankets;
I am going to push it across three dark highways
or coast along under 600,000 faint stars.
I want to have it with me so I don’t have to beg
for too much shelter from my weak and exhausted friends.
I want to be as close as possible to my pillow
in case a dream or a fantasy should pass by.
I want to fall asleep on my own fire escape
and wake up dazed and hungry
to the sound of garbage grinding in the street below
and the smell of coffee cooking in the window above.Gerald Stern, from This Time: New and Selected Poems
I’ve never seen my name under an organ before.
Success Academy advertisement in the Bedford L, defaced to read “this is bullshit.”
