Touring the City

By Philip Sidney

Sun, 03 Aug 2014
  • 1774 reads
6 comments
 

Concrete subways take us deep beneath the city. 

Here air holds the smell of time passed:

old beer, stale urine,

something too ancient to name.

We tip-tap with high-heeled delicacy though the dark.

Over us, life plays in roaring, broad daylight.

A subtle shift of position and -

we are beneath, in fabricated caves,

where quiet contemplation of the bones of the city

remind us of the fragility of the mercantile edifices

above, those crystalline geological oddities

under constant reconstruction,

reshaping the substance of the land.

Certificate PG
Poem
Nature

Comments

Submitted by maisie on

and really enjoyed the last poem, this one for me doesn't hit the spot so much.  I'm not keen on underground...   just a peccadillo
 

maisie angel Guess what?  I'm still alive!

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Sorry about that maisie.  You probably woudn't have liked going into the subways in Birmingham - but they've filled most of them up now.  

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I'm not sure if I read this before, but if so, I think if so I must have done so too quickly. I have now caught its picture more clearly, and really feel how it has captured much of both worlds quite simply, and effectively.
It reminds me of one of my children when young having fascination in trying to imagine the world under where we were driving, and his pleasure in a little book 'Under the streets'. Another of them struggled to imagine the shop being empty of staff after hours!
Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thank you Rhiannon.  I still like looking at the world this way.

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Philip

I liked this poem. You show the wonder of the underground world - which is man made and recent, but still quite impressive. I thought of the catacombs of Rome when I was reading this.

Jean

 

Jean Day

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks Harpie, I know what you mean! Love realising how strange our every day world is.  Thanks for reading. :)