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This City

(for Amy and Jamie)


This city has the knack
of magnetising nations,
colours, families, tribes:
its giant apple-heart
relentless in the pursuit
of happiness and dimes.
Oh yes, it's twinned to the world.

Yet sometimes its lungs
must pause for breath: time-out
to hear the sounds of
friendly planes unloading guests
for a wedding such as this.

Geography is reduced
to Brooklyn: botany,
a garden for two lovers.




Footnote: this was the first poem I have written on request. The occasion was my eldest son's wedding in the Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn, N.Y.
For those who are interested, visit http://www.amyandjamie.net


Andrew.

How lovely Andrew a beautiful poem for a beautiful day (by the looks of things)

I had to wait until I was back at my office to go through these photos [likewise, with those recently posted by Jarkko of Leonard by Getty]. My home computer takes too long, and then just freezes up .

Both Amy and Jamie have married into such beautiful families and friends . Very interesting times of conversation for all of you while you were in New York. Some delightful personal histories there.

What did you think of the City, itself, Andrew ?

~ Elizabeth

What a lovely-looking couple! And so are the rest of Andrew's family. What a handsome bunch - including the one picci of Andrew himself... You can see where they got the looks from...

Anyway...

Very effective poem. I love the way you describe the atmosphere of the city and then zoom in for a close-up of the happy couple in a garden.

If this is a sample, may we see many more such 'made to order' poems.

To all who have replied, thanks for your warm (and flattering!) comments.
I don't think I'll be writing further "made to order" poems in the near future, though.
The New Yorkers, (quite a lot of those present) told me that I had condensed much of the essence of the city into 60-odd words, and were surprised when they found out that this was my first visit.
N.Y. itself?........incredible!!!
I'd return tomorrow if I could, and spend more time in the Chelsea Hotel, Greenwich Village, and a thousand other locations.
I am now a "suocero" (that's yer actual Italian for "father-in-law")
Andrew.

P.S. I did my "following in Dylan's footsteps" trek, and spent some time in quiet contemplation outside the Dakota Apartments and at Strawberry Fields.

Lovely couple, beautiful poem, Andrew. I particularly like the 'apple-heart' and 'twinned to the world' lines, and the way you made them appear in a context made of 'happiness and dimes'...

Cheers
tom

Dear Tom,
I was waiting for your reply: thanks for the warm comments, but it must be said that I borrowed a word or two from your "September Elegy", as we all know by now .
It's not plagiarism: "This City" is my poem, but you did assist its passage.
For that, please accept the birthday message I wrote to my son just before the wedding...

You never did as you were told

I never told you to support Celtic
or work part-time in Scotmid; nor
did I tell you to achieve five highers,
followed by a joint honours degree
in Spanish with Portuguese. I never

told you to live in Sao Paolo, Rio
de Janiero, London, Madrid or,
god forbid, New York. I never told
you to switch from Dow Jones to Reuters
or fall in love with Amy de Cillia,
and I never told you to marry her.

Come to think of it, what did I tell you?




Andrew.

Good poem. I especially like the "magnetising nations..." part. I am new here. I look forward to looking at everyone's work. I have always written too. I may show some of my own. Also, the "twinned to the world" line struck me.

Kevin

Dear Kevin etc..
Several words seem to have stuck: like I said, it was an occasional poem.
The irony is that it has spawned two more, neither of which will be posted on this message board.
Andrew.

Dear Andrew,

plagiarism never was a thought that had come to my mind. I only mentioned thoses images because you managed to make them your own by putting them into a completely different context.

See you around, talk to you some more elsewhere...

Cheers
tom

PS: Whatever you told me, contained a useful and helpful message. (Btw: one doesn't have to be told to support Celtic. It's the most natural thing to do...)

"Whatever you told me, contained a useful and helpful message"...
Tom, if I've done nothing else on this message board, then I'll take that, and tell you something else: I find it hard to write poetry; the stuff that works.
Plagiarism?.....Dominic Behan said Dylan had stolen his "Patriot Game", and turned it into "With God On Our Side", and Martin Carthy swore that Paul Simon had stolen his "Scarborough Fair", and turned it into...."Scarborough Fair".
Will speak later,
Andrew.

I don't usually reply this way, but allow me to make an exception:
today I received a letter from Scot Medbury, President & CEO of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Dear Mr. McGeever,
Please excuse my delay in responding to your donation to Brooklyn Botanic Garden of poetry entitled This City. We will add your poem to our corpus of literary references to the Garden as we develop a collection of material for a future exhibition.
Sincerely,
Scot Medbury.

P.S. Thankyou so much Andrew for sharing your gift of words with the Brooklyn community. I hope your memories of visiting the Garden will inspire you to visit again!


I'm so pleased that "This City" has been accepted in its natural location.
This is my 700th post on the L.C. Files.

What could be more perfect than this for your 700th posting, Andrew .

Congratulations on an honour I know you appreciate in all of its intention.

Perfect timing ~ this letter and your posting.

Congratulations, again ! Perfectly fitting .


Love,
Elizabeth

Dear Lizzy,
The last time I was published in Northern America (aka Canada ), they omitted lines which I had written, and substituted ones which I hadn't.
This has happened before, on my side of the "pond".
Let's hope This City, once it sees the light of day in the beautuful Brooklyn Botanic Garden, won't suffer the same fate
"Lost in translation"?......surely not!

as aye,
Andrew.

they omitted lines which I had written, and substituted ones which I hadn't.
This has happened before, on my side of the "pond".

What!?! That's unthinkable !!! Absent consultation or suggestion, even!?! Unbelievable. You must have been livid .

~ Lizzy