Chicago Architecture by Night

[Petrarch's Love]

A little something I wrote on a downtown bus:

Chicago Architecture by Night

This surely is a place made for giants.
Straight corridors for their great limbs to stride through
And structures with a thousand eyes
Made in the image of Argus.
It is a place not made in proportion
To those who built it,
And leaves them in awe of what they have wrought
Astounded by a glory surpassing them as much
As the sky they attempt to scrape.

The blind saxophonist plays on the Michigan Avenue bridge.
The river streams below him,
A small and insignificant figure,
The crowd streams by him.
His notes warm the icy air over the river
As they rise toward the sky.
He cannot see the structures made for giants,
The unreal city with its towering lights,
But he can hear the stature of the buildings
In the echoing and re-echoing of his own music.

Toss a little change in the instrument case
For the man who makes the city audible.
Then catch your bus and dream
Of how to touch the sky.

[Riesa]

I took my first trip to Chicago last April, I was struck by the archictural beauty of the place, your poem brought it all back. I especially like the bit about the blind saxophonist. Especially this:


His notes warm the icy air over the river
As they rise toward the sky.

I liked it a lot, nice job. :D

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I really like that. Second "city" poem we've had in the last couple of days. And both with jazz (I assume the blind man was playing jazz - I think they all do), the most urban musical style (except perhaps for hip-hop). The last 2 lines of the first 2 stanzas work perfectly.

I just wish you'd change 'make' to 'made' in the first line! I assume it's a typo, but even if not, it doesn't work.

[Petrarch's Love]

Riesa and Xamonas--Thanks for the comments. I'm glad the poem reminded you of your Chicago trip Riesa. It's an incredible city isn't it? Thanks also for pointing out the typo Xamonas. I went ahead and changed it. And yes, the saxophonist at the bridge plays jazz.

[jon1jt]

This must be the month of the city! Alright, perhaps I've gone a bit too far given I'm that "other" person who penned a poem about the city. Let me begin by saying that this writer has talent; the poem is a lyrical ballot, full of brilliant imagery and color that paints the city under a radiant full moon, and so subtly that you might miss it if you don't read carefully, as it needs time to breathe like a good bottle of wine! This is one you "feel" in your bones. I can see this in a painting too, fluid as the jazz notes being played and bursting with midnight blue and splashes of reds and yellows, whites and oranges, under one grand architecture.

"This surely is a place made for giants
---
He cannot see the structures made for giants,
The unreal city with its towering lights,
But he can hear the stature of the buildings"
---
These lines are all wonderful --- the jazz player is the Archemedian center, the elemental figure of buoyancy/levity in this poem. There is irony at play in the sax player as well: sax player as "insignificant" to city life and jazz player as life-giver, breathing raw energy into every crevice, even if for only this one brilliant night.

Xamonas raises a really interesting point about jazz's urban roots and hip hop's. I wonder if this is generational because I don't identify hip hop as being an urban phenomena, not at all. I see it - more cynically, I admit! - as coming from its corporate progenitors, like Sony, Columbia, etc., which distorts any significance or rightful claim hip hop may actually have, creatively, to the city.

You wrote this on a bus?! I only wish poetry came so easily to me! Bravo! Keep writing, you got the gift there Petrarch!

[Petrarch's Love]

Hi Jon1jt--Gee, I'm glad you liked the poem. Some of your criticism sounds almost more poetic than my poem--"fluid as the jazz notes being played and bursting with midnight blue and splashes of reds and yellows, whites and oranges, under one grand architecture"--what nice commentary. :blush: I actually was reminded of it after reading your excellent "city" poem last week and I dug it out from a stack of papers to look at again, and later decided to post it. I actually find buses and trains really great places to write. If you can't think of anything else to write, there's almost always some sort of inspiration in the people around you--and it's generally about a half hour ride between downtown proper and my place, so I have just enough time to scribble a little something :). Thanks again for the kind crit.

[Virgil]

Nice Petrarch. This is my favorite part:

The blind saxophonist plays on the Michigan Avenue bridge.
The river streams below him,
A small and insignificant figure,
The crowd streams by him.

A few cliches in there that could be worked out:

His notes warm the icy air over the river
As they rise toward the sky.
Feels a little like a cartoon. But if that's what you want, then OK.


And leaves them in awe of what they have wrought
Astounded by a glory surpassing them as much
Too prosey. Needs a little poeticism, a little charge.

Otherwise very nice. I like the ending too. Feels like the hustle and bustle of a major city.

BTW, I don't associate Chicago with jazz. Jazz to me is New York and New Orleans. I associate Chicago with blues. I've never been to Chicago but I have always wanted to go to Chicago blues clubs. Ever been to any? Also I would love to go to Chicago's Wrigley Fields and watch the Cubs.

[Petrarch's Love]

Hi Virgil--Thanks for the crit. I like the start of the second stanza too. I don't quite see the cartoon thing--I didn't even think those lines were very visual-- but that doesn't mean it isn't what others are reading. There are indeed a lot of good blues clubs in Chicago and I've been to a few. Haven't been to Wrigley Field yet though, which a certain baseball crazy friend of mine seems think is truly shocking.

[Virgil]

There are indeed a lot of good blues clubs in Chicago and I've been to a few. Haven't been to Wrigley Field yet though, which a certain baseball crazy friend of mine seems think is truly shocking.
I know you said somewhere you're originally from California (what part, BTW?) but you must try to go to Wrigley Field, even if you're not really a baseball fan. And try to go to a day game. The Cubs were the last ball club to stubbornly not convert most week day games to night games. Day games became a tradition for the Cubs, of which only the last few years they've given up. But they still have more than the other ball clubs. I love baseball, so I must make a pilgramage some day.

[rachel]

Petrach's Love
absolutely stellar. It moved me deeply. As one who works on the streets with the broken and disenfranchised I see such players of musical instruments daily. No matter what the tune, no matter what the instrument, be it a guitar, a violin, a flute, the music always seems to take on the personality of the area they sit or stand on.
You say your thoughts so simply and yet so powerfully. I am awed.

[Petrarch's Love]

Rachel--I'm really glad you liked the poem. I know exactly what you mean about the music taking on the personality of the place the person is standing on, although I think I've always thought of it the other way around, that these street musicians are the ones giving a place its personality. I can't imagine how bare our cities would seem without these people who make music off of hope and spare change.

Virgil--Maybe I'll make a pilgrimage up to Wrigley just for you this spring :). There are actually a couple factors that have kept me from going. One is that I'm on the south side where the Sox reign supreme, and the other is that I'm usually researching like mad in late spring and gone in California for the summer, meaning I miss out on large portions of the Chicago baseball season. I'm from southern California, Orange County :cool: (and no, my life is not a mirror image of the T.V. show "The OC"), so my baseball time is split between the Angels and the Dodgers (various family members have deep feelings about each, but I'm something of a baseball agnostic).

[Virgil]

Virgil--Maybe I'll make a pilgrimage up to Wrigley just for you this spring :). There are actually a couple factors that have kept me from going. One is that I'm on the south side where the Sox reign supreme, and the other is that I'm usually researching like mad in late spring and gone in California for the summer, meaning I miss out on large portions of the Chicago baseball season. I'm from southern California, Orange County :cool: (and no, my life is not a mirror image of the T.V. show "The OC"), so my baseball time is split between the Angels and the Dodgers (various family members have deep feelings about each, but I'm something of a baseball agnostic).
A while back my sister lived in Fullerton. Is that part of Orange County? I stopped by a few times when she lived there.

South side of Chicago. You're right that's White Sox territory, and they just won the World Series last year. Chicago is a good baseball city.

[Petrarch's Love]

Yeah, people around here are still celebrating the world's series. :banana:

Fullerton is indeed in Orange County. My grandad lives there but I hail from Huntington Beach which, as it's name suggests, is beautifully located right on the coast. :cool: