I took these photographs at the Waterfront a few days ago. I have a weird affinity for industrial machines, cranes, bulldozers, graders, etc., and feel compelled to take photographs whenever I see one. (I have not yet discovered the psychological source of this obsession, so any suggestions will be helpful ....)
Steel Giraffes
There are, probably, somewhere
arms as petal-slight as hers;
there are probably somewhere
wrists as slim;
quite probably, someone has
hands as slender-leafed as hers;
the fingers, probably
bare of rings, as thin.
Certainly, there is nowhere
such a dolour
of funnels, mastings, yards,
filaments of dusk-ringing shrouds
woven through the word goodbye,
riveted steel giraffes
tactfully looking elsewhere
necks very still to the sky.
4 comments:
Beautiful pictures and such an apt poem. I am not familiar with Douglas Livingstone's poetry but I am encouraged to check it out now - thank you! Strangely, I work with a girl who is phobic about structures like this. Properly phobic. Large metal structures including cranes, scaffolding and oil rigs - especially if they're rusty - really freak her out. Even pictures of them make her jumpy. No idea where this comes from. Odd isn't it? I tend to agree with you. There's something fascinating about them.
kendalee: So glad I could introduce you to DL's work. Sadly, he died in 1996 or thereabouts.
they are so wonderful, aren't they?!
my cranes picture collection is growing by the day!
i love the way you described them: steel giraffes! great! :)
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