Exhales of a City

Exhales of a City

 

 

Bronx poet

not on paper,

or in books,

but on walls of tenements

and subway cars, with splashes 

of city colors, sprayed syllables

 

and burned-out vehicles

and five-story apartment buildings

with too many stories of hardship

and poverty to tell,

but who will write them?

on the walls on subways of life

moving too fast for the artist to touch

with his spray of breath

 

that comes in smaller and smaller increments

as the sun goes down with his pen

 

that never left his pocket

or his heart.

 

 

 

erin-cilberto

2/14/2021

Reviews

[Lorry]

JACOB WOZ HERE! Those tenament stories get harder to finish each year Jacob, but even when out pallette is nothing more than talking to ourselves in the grocery queue to make sure people socially distance us, it's gonna get said anyway... And way more loudly if anyone tries to tell us otherwise.
And yes... That's exactly what the cafe needs... An elevator. Genius! 😊
Now make sure to keep tagging my friend.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

we are all walking around talking to ourselves these days.
Louder louder louder.
thank you, lorry,
j.

[Lorry]

Some of us have even fallen out with ourselves because they can't remember where they left the TV remote and it's stuck on Kerrang TV at full volume.
And it wasn't me, because heavy metal gives me ouchy head 😊

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Love this Jacob
Well described
Enjoyed it
So hope you are well

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, Julie,
j.

[Christine Anne Shaw]

City life, the writing on the wall. It's been a long while since I lived in the city, but in town we still come across poverty. Not so much the burned out cars but the run down apartments and the garbage left outside rotting are still there, plus the odd rat or two. That would be dealers and the other vermin I'm talking about. I saw graffiti everywhere as I read your lines. I saw the tunnels where the homeless sleep in all weather's. For some reason I remembered public toilets and reading the graffiti on the walls there. Who writes about this stuff I used to ask. Now I know.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, you see where my mind is...in the toilet...ha ha.
thanks Chris...I believe poetry is everywhere, not just on pristine pages.
j.

[starsvit]

Really structured and useful information. And everything is clear, thanks. I looked through some posts and must say, they are very https://sites.google.com/view/bestpaperwritingservices interesting. Best regards, essay writer

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, John,
j.

[Leo French]

I guess this piece can outline what many people have become aware of. It does a nice job of focusing on the conditions we can't ignore. Good job.

[Delmar Cooper]

Well you tagged me anyway. thanks for your thoughts that give me -- rephrase that-- you cause ripples.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, Delmar...

[John the Baptist]

Made me think of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence." Write until your last breath. It's never too late. Even if nobody reads it, it's the doing that matters.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

something therapeutic about the actual writing itself...if others read, that's a bonus.

[light and ashes]

I would not mind if a man decided to write his poetry in spray paint on walls.
This is really good, Jacob.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

as long as I don't inhale too much of it.
thank you, light,
j.

[light and ashes]

:) you're welcome

[Lydia Shutter]

Reminds me of the S&G song, "Sounds of Silence". The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls! Indeed, who will read them? The people who are street poets never write down the words, but they should. Some lines are spray painted, but will they last? A bit of a sad one here. Lydi**

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"echo the will of silence"....thank you, Lydi...
some of the street poets are the best we have...no consequence of hiding meanings with all kinds of intrusion...just what it is...life.
thank you, Lydi.
j.

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

“Bronx poet
not on paper,
or in books,
but on walls of tenements
and subway cars, with splashes
of city colors, sprayed syllables”
Yes, you know I love what you’ve written here my fellow Bronxite! Reading your verses, I hear Simon and Garfunkel singing and the great NY Beat Poets spilling words over Columbia University’s fertile campus. Most of all, I hear you here Jacob... with the 2 and 4 trains rumbling in the background. We know the city, even after we leave it. Homage to the Bronx, and to you who makes it proud.. I hear fingers snapping...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Your comment made me smile...to think the Bronx might be proud of a native son who still feels that pull of the city.
My dad graduated from NYU....even though he only LOOKED like a Beat poet his last couple years.
Thank you, Annette...
"fog rolls in from the east river bank, like a shroud it covers Bleeker street, fills the alleys ...."
love S&G...
j.

[James]

You always say my poems remind you of a songs, yours reminded me of The Sound of Silence...so much going on, but no one noticing or communicating the beauty in the scene.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

wow, you have no idea how much I appreciate this comment....S&G are my favorites...so having anything of mine spoken about in the same breath as something of theirs...big smile.
thank you, James,
j.