Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CITY, by LAURENCE HARTMUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CITY, by                    
First Line: Sullen city of motile skies
Last Line: That is why I mock your law that says I should be as other men.
Subject(s): Cities; Traffic; Urban Life


Sullen city of motile skies
Impinged upon sad stone piles,
I have traversed your hard-crusted streets
And seen the severe swollen crowd-stream.
I mock your law that says I should be as other men,
Living in boxes,
Working in the centre of a confusion of iron.

Your weakness, city,
Is that you have a soul.
A rhythm of men living together is in you,
Although their laughter is brutal and seldom.
In the long sunlessness of your streets there is a soul.
In the screaming of your traffic
That has eluded the futile weeping of gulls,
In the sagged bodies of your street women and their copper laughter,
There is a song with words that do not matter.
Whether you will or no,
And though each of your folk
Should suddenly bury his teeth in his neighbor's throat,
There is a soul, and that is your weakness, city.

The sky, and the sea that carelessly takes your ships --
These see your soul, city,
The soul you would destroy with your hands.
That is why you are given sunlight,
And why you are allowed to see
The calm marriage of these two old gods,
Mocking your hands, city.
I have seen your soul,
I have taken knowledge of it from the sky and the sea.
That is why I mock your law that says I should be as other men.





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