Recently Released  |   Bookshelf  |  Library Pick  |   Book Club   |  Message Board  | Book Chat |  Books Home

  Covering New York Book by Book. New Releases, Old Stand-bys. Individually, by genre and by topic. Got a favorite? an opinion? a particular craving? Let us know.

BOOKSHELF
A Walker’s City
28 Apr 2003

In James Merrill’s 1962 poem, “An Urban Convalescence,” a walk brings the unpleasant but familiar discovery that a neighborhood building has been torn down.

Out for a walk, after a week in bed,
I find them tearing up part of my block
And, chilled through, dazed and lonely, join the dozen
In meek attitudes, watching a huge crane
Fumble luxuriously in the filth of years,
Her jaws dribble rubble. An old man
Laughs and curses in her brain,
Bringing to mind the close of The White Goddess.

As usual in New York, everything is torn down
Before you have had time to care for it.
Head bowed, at the shrine of noise, let me try to recall
What building stood here. Was there a building at all?
I have lived on this same street for a decade.

Back to the main story

 

 




This website is brought to you by Citizens Union Foundation. It was made possible by a grant from the Charles Revson Foundation, and receives support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York Times Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Altman Foundation, and viewers like you. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.