A Short Walk From My Door

What follows are a dozen short films, most around a minute or two, the record of a year, November 2011 to November 2012, travelogues I made during walks in the neighborhood and further out into the city. Sometimes I saw street art or something that I liked that reminded me of a poem. When you take a walk, you never know what you will find and I do find that walking is the perfect time for thinking so I try to do it as much as I can.

Between First Avenue and Avenue A on Saint Marks Place there was anonymous art on the walls though perhaps some of it is by Taquila Mockingbird. November 24, 2012.

Hurricane Sandy from my window and then the street, 9th Street and Avenue C. October 29, 2012.

A whimsical sight, a political poster on the south side of 14th Street. Saw it Saturday afternoon walking home from the gym near the L on Third Avenue. October 27, 2012.

A stroll from the Stein show at the Met through Central Park and over the High Line. Several weekends during May 2012. Vocal by Gertrude Stein.

A foreboding figure, like a waiting troll who might ask for a toll, was staring at me from a trash receptacle near Avenue B on 12th Street. It was there and then one day (thankfully perhaps) it was gone. I recite the beginning of the Dhammapada and some Gregory Corso. March 2012.

On the R subway platform going north at Whitehall Street there was a girder whose peeling paint looked to me like a camel; it inspired me to recite Harlem by Langston Hughes although you won’t get to Harlem riding on the R; it goes into Queens. Since Hurricane Sandy my camel girder has been painted over with blue paint due to the damage done by the sea water when the subway station was completely underwater. Whitehall Street where you catch the R and the 1 was closed for over a month. The tracks are white with sea salt. February 2012.

This wonderful monkey lived outside my door at 9th Street and Avenue C for almost a year. Time and passersby have torn him little by little into unrecognizable shreds. Ah time! January 2012.

My nephew Daniel and I perform together at the New Year’s Day Poetry Marathon at Saint Marks Church on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets. Donate! January 1, 2012.

Some sparrows (or are they spirits?) in the holly in Tompkins Square. December 2011.

The snake by Chico is still there and in pretty good shape on Avenue C between 8th and 7th Streets. December 2011.

The mysterious hand was there for a day at 14th Street and Third Avenue. Now there’s a restaurant called The 5 Napkin Burger, and probably some more of NYU. December 2011.

I was lucky and blessed to see these young women do their reflective performance during the OWS demonstrations at Union Square. November 2011.

4 Comments

  1. Very nice tour. I took the full fare! Loved your insight, appreciation, poetry and playing. You brightened my spirit for the day and gave me another taste of New York. Thanks a mil!

  2. How wonderful. New York is so alive with the arts, I love it!

Leave a Reply