NYC cabs & High Lines//strictly geometrical

Posted on by claudia


in fact, geometry is everywhere,
even on the backseat of a yellow
New York city cab. the arrow
on the little screen, equal-sided,
re-assuring red, triangular, i wait
for it to move, to
find its way across the map but it
keeps  hanging  long enough to
make me lose direction while

the Hudson shines like fish scales
on a windy evening sun & i get sleepy
in the warmth—there’s something
soothing in the face of math, of
things that play to certain rules
that you can calculate and measure
back to find their roots, grounded
deep in pools of logic, we

have walked the High Line long
enough to feel the rust and budding life
wind around our aching toes, find
comfort in the fact of art expressed
in different ways by hopping in
and out the Chelsea galleries,
listening closely to the artist’s voice
and realize how we see things with
such different eyes like this painting of the
colored woman which for me is like
an anchor and you say that it disturbs you,

there is little that is fact, or facts
alone, and i take out my pen, trying to
find the formula of moving in a
certain sense, define the area of 2 *
(length + width) and  (1/3) * (x) * height but
see, i’m missing out the multiple dimension
that is mostly hidden

for the eyes– you swipe your card
to pay the driver, and i’m buying tulips
along the way because it’s spring & art & figures
mingle in a weird equation, still unriddled
as we step out on the pavement
& the wind blows– in our face again
. 

.
over at dVerse, Charles Miller has a challenging prompt for us…and it’s getting a bit scientific today…so get your pens ready and join us at 3pm EST when the doors swing open..

58 responses to “NYC cabs & High Lines//strictly geometrical”

  1. I agree that there is something soothing in things that play by the rules. We always know where we stand, how to figure….and swiping that card is easier than looking for bills and coins. And the wind sometimes blows all the rules away, but thank goodness there are tulips to remind us that it is spring!

  2. variances of rules within rules with expectations of “a” rule behind it all, and then “the wind blows– in our face again” –

    it must be an awfully big elephant we’re all touching feeling and describing, but we do know it’s an elephant, lol !!! 😉 i think 😉

    and in it all, such beauty,

    “the Hudson shines like fish scales
    on a windy evening sun & i get sleepy
    in the warmth…”

  4. This is great, so pensive. You think so much about things I can see – I do too. But I can’t make poetry like this. This is great poetry.

  6. there is a def geometry to NYC…learn it and you can get anywhere…there is def soothing in the math of things…knowing some equations just work…and sometimes it is figuring out the variables as well…glad to share that first cab ride with you as well…and the tulips were a great hit at dinner with k…your thoughtfulness like that is def very cool claudia

  7. Love the details here of your N.Y cab drive with Brian…love this…the Hudson shines like fish scales
    on a windy evening sun & i get sleepy
    in the warmth .
    You takes us in and we feel a part of your day 🙂

  8. Doing math in a cab dome, as you roam well I suppose since the traffic takes forever that is a good endeavor, nice how things move at their own pace and in the right time and space.

  9. Amazed at how much material you drew from NYC. The Highline is quite a nice walk and I only recently (like within the last six months) discovered it, despite living here. Lots of unique plants built on the ruins of above-ground subway tracks with a great view of the Hudson and a very artsy feel with all the galleries. I can see how you were able to get such great inspiration.

  11. What another wonderful peek into the days you spent in NYC. It shows you took in in finest details, every bit, nook and cranny that your eyes could possibly absorb. It seems to come alive as you describe it. Amazing, very cool too 🙂

  12. Oh Claudia, it’s good you got to see the Big Apple…many are entranced by the lights, but few can write so intimately about the streets as you, can bring the city to bear as you and your witty pen can. And the fact that you can mix poetry and geometry, well…lord, now that’s not something I thought I’d see.

  13. Ah…I just love this part “there is little that is fact, or facts
    alone, and i take out my pen, trying to
    find the formula of moving in a
    certain sense…” seems to capture how the mind works sometimes to me…another fine poem.

  14. You make it sound mystical. I wish I had seen it through your eyes. But I don’t know, it would take my going into some other dimension to ever think of mixing math and N.Y. Only you can create like that.

  17. This is so cool. I’m so NOT a math person (I need help to total my golf score) but do enjoy the whole geometric world about us, as long as I don’t have to calculate anything. :0) You truly have an artist’s eye, Claudia.

  18. Claudia- I know I’ve said it before, but I’m really digging these NYC poems. and to add math, well, not sure if you know or not, but I’m kind of a closet math geek- love it. Great write. Thanks

  19. I think my favorite bit is:

    “we

    have walked the High Line long
    enough to feel the rust and budding life
    wind around our aching toes”

    Girders and concrete like vines and earth. Nice.

  20. Claudia, I love this reassurance in algorithms, the angles of perceptions, and poetry of tulips, just monumental! It also brought back memories of attending gallery openings in Chelsea :).

  21. “there’s something soothing in the face of math…of things that play to certain rules”

    Yes can definitely relate to that. I absolutely hate math and precise things and rules and yet feel at odds when a shape or a number…things are out of sync or not as they should be. I loved the delivery and appreciated the flow, Claudia.

  22. Claudia!!! You have taken MATH and made it poetic! Numbers are public enemy number one in my book…but you’ve forced me to reconsider…thought this wonderful…and now must find a new enemy to top my list! 😉

  23. Claudia…. I’ve been reading your poems for a couple of months now… At first, I wasn’t sure if it was the kind of verse I like, but over time, I’ve come to get a better feel for what you are trying to express, I believe.

    You paint with words, and the pictures of NYC and your life and perceptions there that you are painting are very real, very personal, and yet very detached at the same time. I have to say I’ve come to appreciate these vignettes from your days and nights amid the towers of Manhattan… I’m a left-coaster myself, but I’ve taken a bite or two from the Big Apple in my day, and appreciate these trips back to the streets of the City that never sleeps….

    I like this one very much, it shows insight as well as keen perception and attention to details…. and the technique of connecting the last word of a stanza to the first line of the next is very effective in controlling the tempo and rhythm, and getting where you want the reader to look…. very skillful… thanks!

    I’m glad I kept coming back…. take care, & Blessed Be…. I’ll be back for sure….

  24. With in the order of the geometry and the chaos of the city I found the charm of poetry, art, friendship and symmetry in your work. Lovely Claudia…always unique.

  26. Claudia… enjoyed the topic and these lines stood out…”the Hudson shines like fish scales on a windy evening sun & i get sleepy.”.. loved the visual

  27. I like the regularity of things too, and find comfort in the math that rules things, seemingly beyond direct control. You wed this awareness and affection for regularity with such vibrant awareness of all that goes on in between the lines, pulling us perhaps to their limits – physical or spiritual – and revealing that inside that seems to sometimes get above or around or beyond those limits. At least the hunger for them shows its deepest desires here in your poem. What can we take away from this life? Maybe nothing, maybe it all stays inside the limits or maybe the limits dissolve by acceptance where we finally see our own emptiness.

  29. The best things in life are so randomly given to us–and every eye sees every thing in its own lens, no matter how close we are to each other–the thing I love about your poems, Claudia is how you always seem open, both arms out to catch them, smell them and taste them–then filter them back through your words with your own imprint on them, a logic of poetry that makes your style always recognizable.

  30. good job, i learned a bit more about the prompt by reading it.You made a real vivid description about the water here, , fish scales and the sun i could see it, as i read it.
    I would rather speak http://bit.ly/IOcthv

  32. I like this. NYC is a city of mathematical equations indeed, but one plus one does not always equal two there.

    This part? “I get sleepy in the warmth—there’s something soothing in the face of math, of things that play to certain rules…”

    Yeah, math always makes me sleepy too, mostly because I’m lousy at it.

  35. The best poets have a voice that has matured, that is distinctive, unique, that you can point to and say, there you are, that’s a poem by Frost, or by Neruda, or by Eliot. Here, you prove again, the distinctiveness of your voice, with its ability to navigate a narrative with the precise lines of a Miro painting. …And I absolutely love that you managed to work in an equation into the poem.

  36. this is such a great line and so true ->

    soothing in the face of math, of
    things that play to certain rules
    that you can calculate and measure
    back to find their roots, grounded
    deep in pools of logic, we

    because you can’t argue about math. it just is. it is the truth. it is so absolute. you don’t have to get upset about it. there’s no conflict. it can be relaxing. and you can make pretty charts out of it.

  39. there’s something
    soothing in the face of math, of
    things that play to certain rules
    that you can calculate and measure
    back to find their roots, grounded
    deep in pools of logic

    this is brilliant because so true, so much my own experience, it brings the verse to life for me. As also did the Hudson shining like fish scales. Joyful reading, thanks!

  40. love the contrasts here between the tangible and the intangible. Love the way you use the everyday geometry of the cityt to illustrate your point- its geometrical yes- BUT inside it are so many things that can’t be measured in this way- like how a painting looks to you or to someone else- our emotions- our souls…this is the crisis of science itself….really enjoyed this claudia- got my brain ticking

  41. That is a really profound piece of work Claudia and one that continues to open out each time you read it…. ‘there is little that is fact, or facts alone, and i take out my pen, trying to find the formula of moving in a certain sense’ ….. excellent

  42. from the opening line i was hooked… so much unfolding here, so much to welcome you back for repeated reads

  43. I enjoyed NY thru your eyes…we didn’t take the cab when we were there but walked the whole time, taking in all the energy and sights….there is geometry everywhere, including tulips and spring ~

  47. WATERPROOF

    Geometry is anywhere
    Out of the limits of your mind
    As one of my friends once
    Invented helical pyramids

    Geometry is your limits
    Chain and ball of your time
    The prison you created and love
    As all in it got your mark

    Kill geometry
    And see what happen
    When love’s the only word
    That shines in your eyes

  48. Love this. For some reason, this line, in particular, speaks to me:
    “the Hudson shines like fish scales
    on a windy evening sun & i get sleepy
    in the warmth”

    LOVE windy evening sun. Can feel, see this.

  49. no matter what the subject, you bring a passion to your poems that is uniquely “Claudia” ~ i love the mingling of math and tulips. {smile}
    ♥

  50. Another one to like. 🙂 It’s like enjoying the tour with you.

    Clever working of math terms into the poem, geometry perfect and not a line jagged or obtuse at all. 🙂

  51. I just had to come by and see what you did with this prompt (which I missed this week)! And, oh, I love it, and this mostly:
    “the Hudson shines like fish scales
    on a windy evening sun & i get sleepy
    in the warmth—”
    …and the taxis, and the artists all wrapped into this unique description of movement and delight. I can tell you really enjoyed your trip to NYC. 🙂

  52. If science and poetry are odd bedfellows capable of finding much delight in each other, poetry and math is stranger, stronger stuff, as music is mathematics and the eye’s an isosceles, triangulating every transit from I to Thou. This poem is rich with New York seen through an eye sighing at the relations in poetry while also calculating the odds. Many poets are horribly challenged on the math side; I am; my graduate exam was top 1 percentile in English, 66th in Math. The droll equations always keep sprouting nipples and jasmine bloom. (My wife balances our checkbook). Fine write, Claudia.

  53. Claudi, you use all these geometrical lines to connect the dots of jaunting around in NYC so very well! Thinking of my daughter and son-in-law doing all of this–and more–everyday there!

  56. “for the eyes– you swipe your card
    to pay the driver, and i’m buying tulips
    along the way because it’s spring & art & figures
    mingle in a weird equation, still unriddled
    as we step out on the pavement

    & the wind blows– in our face again”

    Hi! Claudia…
    What a fast paced poem…filled to the brim [like a ballerina] with [much]movement…
    …Only your last stanza “jumped in my face as Sunday evening approaches and the sunset.
    Tks, for sharing!
    deedee 😉