Daily Archives: October 20, 2014

Saturday Night Billiards

Posted on by
1

This is the photo I chose for my Macaulay Snapshot.

It was Saturday night and I was at a pool hall with some friends. After a full day of contemplating what scene will be the focus of my picture, it dawned upon me amidst a game of pool. I looked around me and saw various types of people: a few children, teens, young adults, and even elderly adults. There people of different ethnicities and of different backgrounds. Each person there had their own story. Yet, at that point in time, we were all doing the same thing: playing a simple game of pool. When I think of NYC, I think of an incredible wide range of people, all sharing a single sense of community. I believe this idea is encompassed by this picture.

Taken in a pool hall in Jamaica, Queens

Taken in a pool hall in Jamaica, Queens

The Cabdriver’s Smile

Posted on by
1

In “The Cabdriver’s Smile”, Denise Levertov writes about a cabdriver with rather poor customer service skills. The cabdriver does not seem to accept the passenger, even after receiving a very generous tip and is not even pleased when a fellow cabdriver greets him, even though he does not actually know the man. Upon seeing the cabdriver’s license photo, the passenger concludes that this man is hiding “longing and hope”. I do not feel this is necessarily a fair conclusion, especially since she has only seen this man once. For all she knows, the cabdriver is just having a bad day, but otherwise could be a very pleasant man. What about this man’s actions make the passenger extrapolate this one experience out to his entire life?

The Great Figure

Posted on by
Reply

This poem seems incredibly simple, especially since it is easily the shortest poem we have read this semester. However, it may be so simple that it is still very difficult. On the surface, William Carlos Williams writes about seeing a figure 5 on a fire truck, as sirens are going off. I do not understand why this is so significant. Why is the figure 5 so “Great”? Clearly there is some emergency that calls for a fire truck, but what is this emergency? I also do not understand the structure of this poem. Why is each line so short, yet there does not appear to be any pattern?

Snapshots

Posted on by
4

The Tallest Building in New York

The Tallest Building in New York

 

We think we have accomplished great things. This is the picture of the most influential person in your life staring at the tallest building in New York. This building was built before the city was named “New York,” and by far, is above all other architectures ever built by humans on this earth. It is currently not available for view, but one can vague see the shadow of this structure. It is truly a magnificent piece of artwork.

 

“You are the sky before the sky.” (Skyscraper, by Matt Rasmussen)

Posted on by
Reply

It felt almost as if, no matter where I walked through the city, this overarching Freedom Tower, now officially the One World Trade Center, towered over me and everyone else in the area. No matter where I turned, no matter where I looked, this Freedom Tower was there, proclaiming its existence to the city’s inhabitants and the rest of the world. Rasmussen describes skyscrapers as a sword thrust into the city, and I think that perfectly describes the Freedom Tower. This tower, this sword, was thrust into the city from the ashes and rubble that was 9/11 and now it stands tall. I believe that it strongly represents New York, its city, and its people, in that although sometimes we get knocked down, we have the ability to come together and stand tall once again.

IMAG0486 IMAG0492 IMAG0501 IMAG0537

 

~Pun