Soon the summer
Now the pleasant purgatory
Of spring is over,
Soon the choking
Humidity
In the city
On the fire escapes
In a sleeveless T-shirt
Smoking a cigar
In tune with the tremor
Of the mindless yellow
Commercial traffic
Moving in the city,
Where no one really
Buys a car,
American
Or otherwise,
Where we will,
As Rilke said we would
Where we will
Wake, read, write
Long letters
And in the avenues
Wander restlessly
To and fro
On foot in
The humidity,
Where soon I’ll shower, dress,
Take the dog out for a piss,
And mail this.
Liam Rector, "Soon the City" from The Executive Director of the Fallen World. Copyright © 2006 by Liam Rector. Reprinted by permission of The University of Chicago Press.
Source:
The Executive Director of the Fallen World (The University of Chicago Press, 2006)
Discover this poem’s context and related poetry, articles, and media.
Poet
Liam Rector
1949–2007
POET’S REGION
U.S., New England
Subjects
Living,
Life Choices,
Time & Brevity,
Nature,
Summer,
Arts & Sciences,
Poetry & Poets,
Social Commentaries,
Cities & Urban Life
Poetic Terms
Allusion
Founder and director of the Graduate Writing Seminars at Bennington College, poet Liam Rector attended a number of colleges as an undergraduate without completing a degree. He eventually earned an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
His poetry collections include The Sorrow of Architecture (1984), American Prodigal (1994), and The . . .
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Poem Categorization
SUBJECT
Living,
Life Choices,
Time & Brevity,
Nature,
Summer,
Arts & Sciences,
Poetry & Poets,
Social Commentaries,
Cities & Urban Life
POET’S REGION
U.S., New England
Poetic Terms
Allusion
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