Month: June 2016

libraries lectures music and galleries

relics endow perception of ravages and desolation
as beauty and truth
in unbigoted contemplation, without rancor
unmarked.
from secure investments

peabody at sunrise
(george peabody endowed the peabody institute of the city of baltimore in 1857, which opened its doors on mount vernon square and was dedicated to the public in 1866)

community in orogeny

colliding continents
compress and congeal
veins of granite gabbro basalt
layers of sandstone limestone banded iron
shifting forming figuring
uplifting mountains of quartzite slate gneiss
through clouds
sun wind vapor rock resound
and rain flies like music through the valleys and streams

yellow lines at sunrise
(in november of 1864 there were spirited celebrations of maryland’s new constitution, which abolished slavery—including a large one at mount vernon hall on howard street)

not my maryland

despots filled the streets
cobbled with ignorance born from greed
bastard sons and daughters of mother hell
will snuggle in parlors with empty words and moldy swords
thirty thousand new suns could not wrest the nightmare of your torture
your hurled bricks pieces of iron and coal epithets a lunatic babble
as you writhe in self-forged chains beneath your hell bitch mother
puss oozing from your blistering flecked faces mountains streams
murderous premeditated with no soul to yield or defend
distant thunder soundless in the void
that could have been hearts beating with the earth

pratt over jones falls at sunrise
(in 1861 baltimore citizens started the killing in the civil war by attacking massachusetts soldiers who were on their way to washington and travelling west on pratt street making a railway transfer—a maryland native living in louisiana who was sympathetic to the murderers wrote a silly poem that is now the maryland state song http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/symbols/lyrics.html)

regressive park cents

unsettled i swarm a multitude
invading this place
cycling through so many sundays
greeting strangers in wooded undulating water vistas
an ideal passenger leaving little trace
wanting clear city springs unbuilt boulevards streetcars
primordial flocks and schools of birds and fish.
until i just breath

druids at sunrise
(druid hill park was inaugurated in 1860 by the lame duck know-nothing mayor)

spindle principle

no one notes the dark steel serpent
low almost submerged steaming out of middle branch
sleek and cutting
sailing time
plodding along dry sea-beds
yachting through silent oceans
no omen marks the shoals and canyons
only the wake resonates

middle branch at sunrise
(ross winans began building innovative but unsuccessful steamships in 1858 near what is now swann park)

going to see sam

order of the star-spangled banner america
america bred degradation
tubs of blood ripped plug butts rattling america
america shall rule with secret pig blood
the america rhetor tweets himself unparanoid unthreatened unpatriotic unsecret unprotesting
america great again america
the brave wannabe all thumbs combs the drama constantly

lexington market at sunrise
(lexington market was one of several locations where deadly, premeditated political gang violence was waged in 1856)

will be

armed badged indemnified marshalled and reported
only to know nothing.
one day to learn
integrity communication community and urgency

bank street at sunrise
(the police force was authorized by the state legislature to succeed constables and night watchmen in 1853 but subsequently co-opted by the know-nothing party—the eastern district station on bank street predated the legislation)

prometheus caged

a city-county with a senator and just so many delegates
free sane white males
not governed by duelists
with masters and slaves
three courts
fixed justice
and temporary additional police

peale museum at sunrise
(baltimore city became one of maryland’s confederation of counties, apart from baltimore county, with the maryland constitution of 1851 and is the largest independent city in the united states —the former peale museum on holliday street was being used as the city hall)

changed alleys

in apple liberty bottle dutch
argyle union brandy honey
happy whiskey sugar wagon
petticoat strawberry welcome
a struggle
for safe intimate space
working walking families
sheltering
intimate
tenacious communion
as a maelstrom gathered
hewn frames shaken blistered scoured in blasts sun and rain
in the eye of hatred and fear
powered by saturating stifling greed and ignorance
the settling storm
relentless
moved great hills of sand
swept away timber and cobbles
moving on so painfully slow
matched by the craton under small streets

strawberry alley at sunrise
(most alleys, like strawberry alley now dallas street, where poor working families lived in the 18th century, have been renamed or redeveloped)