Hi Paul:
Greetings from Manhattan and Happy New Year. We’re having our first snowfall of the year, and it comes as a welcome relief after the hectic rush of the holidays. There is nothing that so quickly changes the tenor of life in the city as a covering of the white stuff. Here is “Manhattan Snow” from my 2008 poetry collection, Father of Water.
Best wishes,
Charles Pierre,
January 6, 2015.
André Kertész, NYC, 1954. Washington Square Park.©
Manhattan Snow
By Charles Pierre:
The hard edges of the city are softened now.
Buildings shimmer in speckled mist, streets
lie buried and still, and the crackle of talk
at each corner is silenced from river to river.
Tonight, no human walks, no vehicle moves,
no noise vibrates across the white landscape.
From our window, an arabesque of lampposts
lends an elegance to the empty, unshovelled
steps and pathways below: a gentle curve
of pendant lights encircles the frosted trunks
and limbs of trees, the drifted-over benches
and trash cans, and the silver tips of bushes.
The island this moment has a numinous shine,
and in the quiet ease of evening, we can hear
our own muffled breathing, the only sound
in the air, as edgeless as snow, hovering above
yet deepening the softness of this winter scene.
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD “Snowstorm” from the film Snow Falling on Cedars.
Perfect composition….Andre’s simply beautiful photo, Charles eloquent poetry, and lovely music accompaniment….
Thanks to Charles Pierre for this lovely paean to a beautiful city, especially when it snows. André Kertész (1894-1985,) a Hungarian born fine art photographer, made his mark during several periods of his life: Hungary, Paris and later New York. He came to America in the 1930’s.
As he grew older, he spent much of his time in his Fifth Avenue apartment with views to the south and west of Washington Square Park. He would shoot out his window with a telephoto lens, and, when I read Charles’ poem, I recalled some of Kertész’s famous snow pictures taken from his roost above the park.