{"id":1320,"date":"2011-06-06T00:23:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T04:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/06\/joan-gelfand-poets-house-walk\/"},"modified":"2011-06-10T00:29:38","modified_gmt":"2011-06-10T04:29:38","slug":"joan-gelfand-poets-house-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/06\/joan-gelfand-poets-house-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Joan Gelfand, “Poets House Walk”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Across Brooklyn in a city dense
\nWith watery dreams, a procession
\nOf crazy lovers strike out
\nTo hear poetry recited mid-span.
\nHum of traffic roars approval.<\/p>\n

Toward DUMBO through the mist
\nPoets, strivers, drivers, divers
\nGraying profs, groupies, gurus hoof it,
\nTo see hundred-year-old Kunitz carouse.<\/p>\n

We stalk poetry across the bridge
\nIn a town distracted, manufacturing
\nYour next thrill, and your next.<\/p>\n

Bicycle tires tharump over
\nOld pocked, trampled wood.
\nRush of water slaps girders
\nShivers of bridge as wet drops
\nShatter against metal deck.<\/p>\n

The jig was up. It rained.
\nAll readings canceled.<\/p>\n

Finally, torrents gave way
\nTo June light, shadow slant
\nWide angles of cable, long stripes
\nFalling across beaten planks.
\nIn the absence of poems,
\nGorgeous geometry,
\nEngineering, poetry, and the wonder
\nOf holding things aloft.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Joan Gelfand<\/a> will be reading at the Jefferson Market Library<\/a> tonight at 5:30 p.m. with local poets Jane Ormerod, Toni Quest, and Karen Hildebrand in an event sponsored by the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Book Association (of which Gelfand is the former president). Other poems from A Dreamer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guide to Cities and Streams include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Venezia<\/a>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Summer<\/a>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cupid<\/a>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Torqued Torus<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (all in Poetry<\/i>, the last in substantially different form as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Torqued\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor Richard Serra\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also three poems at StrangerRoad.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across Brooklyn in a city dense With watery dreams, a procession Of crazy lovers strike out To hear poetry recited mid-span. Hum of traffic roars approval. Toward DUMBO through the mist Poets, strivers, drivers, divers Graying profs, groupies, gurus hoof it, To see hundred-year-old Kunitz carouse. We stalk poetry across the bridge In a town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}