New York Resonances September 21 2009

Riverside Park September 21 2009


Sunny, peaceful New York September Monday –

I walked out. stepping up the street, to purchase flowers.

Coming back, I strolled along the wall,

Looking down a steep incline, at Riverside park,

I’m amazed –even parks here stack up vertically.

Standing in the treetops, I breathe deeply—

Enjoy the freshly renewed air – gift from the leaves.

Far below, an idyllic scene:

Cyclists and runners speed along the river;

City dogs, released from leashes, frolic,

Yipping gaily, tails sweeping to and fro.

Young children likewise leave behind their prams and srrollers, now toddling or running through the trees.

Down a narrow stair topped by a padlocked gate,

Some kind soul has fed the feral cats and left clean water.

The Angelus is tolling at a distant church to say it’s noon.

Up above, the city roils around me,

As I gaze down into the park below.



Reflections:

I’m beginning to make New York mine. The first couple of days, I took taxis everywhere, to get my bearings. How far north, east, south, and west were various destinations? Once I began to get that sense, I’ve actually found myself using the buses and subways like a native, and beginning to develop an appreciation for the unique characteristics of each small New York neighborhood I encountered. Seems the bigger the city, the smaller the neighborhoods.

Finding a delightful park along the river’s berm, and observing New Yorkers at outdoor play, letting out the little child within themselves, added immensely to the city’s believability as a good place to live. In New York, I believe firmly, people readily live in indoor conditions no one would tolerate anyplace else, in exchange for the pleasure of the city's excitement.

After my little walk, it was time for me to leave New York. That was hard. The weather still was glorious, and I was having such a great time. But it was time to head back South, to “home.”

In NC, I have a place, know people, have built a life – but New York feels much more like “home.” I have found Ellen embodied in her friends, her spirit lurking still in her favorite urban haunts, her speech, her interests, and her manner echoed in the ways of those around me. I realize once again that you can “take the New Yorker out of New York, but you can’t remove New York from the heart and soul of the New Yorker." It’s an astonishing illustration of the power of nurture vs. nature.



Legacy September 21 2009

As I was leaving New York today,

The large, jacked up red van

Cut into traffic just in front of us.

Its license, at eye level, began with “ELN.”

At once, you were in my mind,

With all your loving presence.



While in the city that you knew and loved,

I’d claimed my legacy:

Good and loving friends,

Memories of places we’d enjoyed together,

Electrifying link with New York’s pulsing energy,

A sense of coming home.

I'd found you there –

In people’s faces, in their way of speaking,

And in the quickly shifting restless conversations --

Words like rays of sunlight bouncing off

Distant towers' windows --blindingly reflected.



I absorbed New York from you.

This week I felt your coming home.

I felt you all around me, and missed you deep within my soul.