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charles tomlinson
notes from new york
and other poems
1984
above manhattan
Up in the air
among the Iroquois: no:
they are not bom
with a head for heights:
their girder-going
is a learned, at last
a learned thing
as sure as instinct:
beneath them
they can see in print
the news sheet of the city
with a single rent where three
columns, clipped out of it,
show the Park was planted:
webbed and cradled
by the catenary
distances of bridge on bridge
the place is as real
as something imaginary:
but from where they are
one must read with care:
for to put
one foot wrong
is to drop
more than a glance
and though
this closeness and that distance
make dancing difficult a dance
it is that the mind is led
above Manhattan.
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Construction workers eat their lunches atop a steel beam 800 feet above ground, at the building site of the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center.
sobre manhattan
Allá arriba en el aire
entre los iroqueses: no:
no nacen
hechos a las alturas:
su paseo entre vigas
es un aprendizaje, al fin
algo aprendido
tan seguro como el instinto:
a sus pies
pueden mirar, impresa,
la gaceta de la ciudad,
con un solo desgarro, donde tres
columnas, allí levantadas,
muestran que el Parque es obra humana:
envuelto y acunado por
las distancias de catenaria
de puente sobre puente
este lugar es tan real
como si fuera imaginario: pero
desde donde se encuentran
hay que leer con atención:
pues poner
un pie en mal sito
es echar
más que un vistazo
y aunque
esta proximidad y esa distancia
no invitan a bailar, un baile
es lo que aguarda a nuestra mente
sobre Manhattan
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The Iroquois are employed in high construction work.
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