I love the city
No, not the shopping mall
Or the famous landmarks
With their fine architecture
Avoid the tourist bus
To learn the spurious traditions of a bygone past
No, come walk with me
Not in the bright sunshine
We'll wander down this dark alley
To find a separate world I know
A place that I love
Far from green lawns with flowerrs and statues
Keep your eyes open
Stare at no-one
Particularly that woman there
See those doors way up there?
That's an old warehouse
You can see an old hoist still there above
Stand here for a while
Do you hear that rumble?
Those are trains under our feet
It would be hard to sleep
In these old houses
With that tremulous feeling all through the night
We can cross this bridge
Over a placid river
A man was thrown in and drowned
For just being different
Before the city was built
It was the native peoples camp site long ago
Each city is like this
Remembering like me
As it holds on to its chequered past
Now as we turn this corner
Here are the shops again
And the city that everyone thinks they know
Image found at www.pixabay.com
I still love the city in which I was born, but then who wouldn’t love London, with all of its history, and other European cities, such as Vienna, Florence and Venice. But now I love them at a distance. I am more in love with Norwich and Norfolk landscapes. I love the peace and quiet – and there is a lot of history here too! Some time in the future, I will have to leave it too, but for now it’s alleyways and big skies are where I belong.
ReplyDeleteI love your city poem, and was wondering a bit which country you had in mind, until you mentioned the previous owners' camp site. Some of the descriptions somehow put me in mind of Edinburgh, a city I fell in love with when I was there in 1998. However I am like Kim nowadays and much prefer my present small town set in beautiful rural landscapes.
ReplyDeleteRosemary it is an amalgam of cities. I first wrote about Adelaide then threw in bits of London as well. Every city has a secret past. Most of us will have fond memories of towns and cities where we lived but are now modern conformities that are seen everywhere.
DeleteI do miss visiting Philadelphia with the shelter in place order still active (and I intend to keep it up a little longer too, even after it's lifted, just in case). LOL, Philadelphia's checkered past is of fairly common knowledge here in the US.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful
ReplyDeleteLove this! Like catching a glimpse of animals in the sudden quiet.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this especially; "We'll wander down this dark alley/To find a separate world I know/A place that I love/Far from green lawns with flowers and statues." Let's go!💝💝
ReplyDeleteIndeed, the loveliest thing about cities are their roots. Especially the deep ones, those which seem almost gone... but will always be.
ReplyDeleteBig city walking ... I miss the thought of it! The action, the people, sounds.
ReplyDeleteI thought of Seattle, Washington. New Seattle is built upon old Seattle, and one can still tour the catacombs beneath the modern city. I live near a street that was once an old buffalo trail beside a meandering creek, and Indian arrowheads are sometimes found in the fields near my childhood home. Need I say I loved your poem?!?!
ReplyDeletei like your advice, "stare at no-one". one of the basic survival tactics in certain parts of town. :)
ReplyDeletei loved your city poem, and the little details you put in, showing the two faces of it. people usually sees the glitz of a city, the touristy side, but there is always a gritty side to it.
Love that walk through a city - so familiar, it spills its old secrets...
ReplyDeleteI live to walk the city and really "see" all the quirks and beauty of it.
ReplyDeleteHistory that is forgotten or air-brushed still exists. I like this.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun walk and it got even better knowing those special bits of information.
ReplyDelete"Stand here for a while
Do you hear that rumble?"
Reminded me of sitting on and overpass and feeling the rumble caused by traffic speeding along beneath.
Also the outside car mirrors when I have the car stereo real loud, I can see their vibration.
..
As a farm boy from the bottoms, I look at cities as a nice place to visit but I don't feel like I belong. The "city that everyone thinks they know" - an interesting that there is another side to a city's world that is rarely seen.
ReplyDelete