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| “The Rock” is constantly repainted with new graffiti. Here it is this morning. It’s probably different by now. |
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| A look into Graffiti Alley in Ann Arbor from 2022. |
My search continues for poetry that works into my life. Thinking of the two places in our town that encourage graffiti artists to express themselves — “The Rock” and Graffiti Alley — I looked for a poem about graffiti, and found a poem titled “Graffiti.” I’m sharing this post with other lovers of street art who post at Sami’s Monday Murals.
I like its description of “looping black script that no one can read.”
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| In Ann Arbor a few years ago: “looping black script.” |
Here are a few lines from “Graffiti,” and a link so that you can read the entire work if you like:
Graffiti
Kitty Goes Kommando and the Goldman Rats — Phooey!
That blue scaffolding holds up the sky. Who did we think
we were padlocking in, or out? Give me that huge
looping black script no one can read, a secret glyph,
and just where someone has smashed the window, Jesus
the Way the Truth the Life and a dented aluminum frame.
…
Hole in the wall, rose sound-hole,
ribbed sounding board — always from fissures and gaps
melody strains as trains thunderclank across
the girdered overpass, a siren keens, and a solitary man
ambles past amputated acacias fisting out with leaves.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2014)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/57057/graffiti
In the thumbnail that looked gorgeous. Less so in detail....but I think there's a lesson in that in itself! #Muralmondays
ReplyDeleteSome graffiti just looks messy to me. It is nice they are given a spot to do their graffiti art. Take care, have a great day and a happy new week.
ReplyDeleteI like graffiti. There is a place for it. Cool!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of that stone.
ReplyDeleteGraffiti can be messy, but some are actually nice and colourful. Thanks for participating in Monday Murals Mae.
ReplyDeleteThere are some things in life I can do without. Graffiti is one of them. At times it seems especially egregious. In an area we walk quite regularly the park abuts a residential section. A fellow had erected a new fence, very nicely done, and quite expensive I am sure. Within days it was defaced with the mindless daubing of moronic idiots, including the enlightened inscription of those memorable and reasoned words “Fuck Trudeau” and a swastika or two for good measure. Yep, I can do without graffiti. Anything I might compose about it would be a requiem not a celebration.,
ReplyDelete@David: I agree with you about vandalizing private property like fences, but the graffiti I'm featuring is in places where it's allowed and even appreciated. The third photo is under a bridge on an abutment, which isn't as nice, but also not as terrible.
DeleteGraffiti like you've shown works but usually it is just irritating to me, I do love the poem, though.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen this particular rock, but I remember a similar rock on Block Island, Rhode Island. The colors and writing change periodically as artists try their hand at redecorating it. The name of the rock: Painted Rock. (Of course! :)
ReplyDelete