The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
I had last week off, and spent much of my time puttering around my house, putting things away, organizing, sorting, tidying. Part of that puttering was at the computer, "filing" things where they belong, moving photos hither and yon. In doing this, one finds oneself enmeshed in a sort of aimless archeology, drifting off onto tangents (oh, and just another round of Angry Birds).
One of the things I found was a photo of a poem. I'd seen the poem back in April, in a subway car, part of what used to be Poetry in Motion, which then became Train of Thought. I liked the poem, and wanted to remember it, which is why I'd taken the picture with my cellphone.
Walking down my street after the Boxing Day blizzard, there were no crows. But the joy in the girl's soul as she scrambled through snowbanks, and as flurries plopped off laden branches? That lifted my heart.
Alas, Train of Thought is no more. The MTA has decided that they need "to communicate with our customers about what we've done in the past year to improve the system". Instead of lifting our spirits and provoking thought, they'd rather toot their own horn. They probably think that people will appreciate the fare increases more.
As for me, I'd rather have some food for thought, to have Frost transport me from the #6 train to a path through the snowy, crow-filled woods.
7 comments:
Ok, so I'm crossing my fingers you get a face full of unexpected snow...or find a ten spot while waiting for another train.
I'm with you. Loved the poems when I took the subway every day. They really could give my heart a change of mood.
Angry Birds!!!
The flock of crows in my neighborhood is larger in number than any of the ones from the other neighborhoods I have lived in before, though they are not as noisy as the ones I grew up with. Yesterday we were returning from my sister-in-law's house through Hartford on 84 and I saw a group that must have numbered close to 500. It got me wondering just how large a colony of crows might get. I'd hate to see them angry.
The only mass transit here are buses, and I haven't seen the inside of one for over ten years. But I do wish the billboards would be more interesting.
I was sad the MTA took the road more-often taken, because it does make a difference no matter which road you choose. But some differences improve the world, and some don't.
I do wish they'd at least gotten a decent ad agency, though, who could have advised them on what's toot-able on their rather decrepit horn. Every time I read that ad about how they now fix things when they break (instead of waiting a hundred years to fix everything in the station once it completely falls down) I want to rub someone's nose on the third rail and hope it ignites a few sparks of intelligence.
Maybe I'll go read some poems to mellow my mood. Or develop an app that allows one to read poetry in motion...
The Train of Thought idea sounds really lovely--and definitely preferable to an ad campaign.
More likely to find the crows in the city (where the food is) than the woods.
Nice to see Frost on your blog.
T.
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