Peter Behrens's Blog, page 140

One Train May Hide Another

One Train May Hide Another

(sign at a railroad crossing in Kenya)

In a poem, one line may hide another line,
As at a crossing, one train may hide another train.
That is, if you are waiting to cross
The tracks, wait to do it for one moment at
Least after the first train is gone. And so when you read
Wait until you have read the next line—
Then it is safe to go on reading.
In a family one sister may conceal another,
So, when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view
Otherwise in coming to find one you may love another.
One father or one brother may hide the man,
If you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to love.
So always standing in front of something the other
As words stand in front of objects, feelings, and ideas.
One wish may hide another. And one person's reputation may hide
The reputation of another. One dog may conceal another
On a lawn, so if you escape the first one you're not necessarily safe;
One lilac may hide another and then a lot of lilacs and on the Appia Antica
     one tomb
May hide a number of other tombs. In love, one reproach may hide
     another,
One small complaint may hide a great one.
One injustice may hide another—one colonial may hide another,
One blaring red uniform another, and another, a whole column. One bath
    may hide another bath
As when, after bathing, one walks out into the rain.
One idea may hide another: Life is simple
Hide Life is incredibly complex, as in the prose of Gertrude Stein
One sentence hides another and is another as well. And in the laboratory
One invention may hide another invention,
One evening may hide another, one shadow, a nest of shadows.
One dark red, or one blue, or one purple—this is a painting
By someone after Matisse. One waits at the tracks until they pass,
These hidden doubles or, sometimes, likenesses. One identical twin
May hide the other. And there may be even more in there! The
     obstetrician
Gazes at the Valley of the Var. We used to live there, my wife and I, but
One life hid another life. And now she is gone and I am here.
A vivacious mother hides a gawky daughter. The daughter hides
Her own vivacious daughter in turn. They are in
A railway station and the daughter is holding a bag
Bigger than her mother's bag and successfully hides it.
In offering to pick up the daughter's bag one finds oneself confronted by
     the mother's
And has to carry that one, too. So one hitchhiker
May deliberately hide another and one cup of coffee
Another, too, until one is over-excited. One love may hide another love or
     the same love
As when "I love you" suddenly rings false and one discovers
The better love fingering behind, as when "I'm full of doubts"
Hides "I'm certain about something and it is that"
And one dream may hide another as is well known, always, too. In the
     Garden of Eden
Adam and Eve may hide the real Adam and Eve.
Jerusalem may hide another Jerusalem.
When you come to something, stop to let it pass
So you can see what else is there. At home, no matter where,
Internal tracks pose dangers, too: one memory
Certainly hides another, that being what memory is all about,
The eternal reverse succession of contemplated entities. Reading A
     Sentimental Journey look around
When you have finished, for Tristram Shandy, to see
If it is standing there, it should be, stronger
And more profound and theretofore hidden as Santa Maria Maggiore
May be hidden by similar churches inside Rome. One sidewalk
May hide another, as when you're asleep there, and
One song hide another song; a pounding upstairs
Hide the beating of drums. One friend may hide another, you sit at the
     foot of a tree
With one and when you get up to leave there is another
Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. One teacher,
One doctor, one ecstasy, one illness, one woman, one man
May hide another. Pause to let the first one pass.
You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. It can be
     important
To have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.
                                        
                                                                                            -Kenneth Koch

     Kenneth Koch, "One Train May Hide Another" from One Train, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 by Kenneth Koch. 

James Schuyler, "February"

 

FEBRUARYA chimney, breathing a little smoke.
The sun, I can't see
making a bit of pink
I can't quite see in the blue.
The pink of five tulips
at five p.m. on the day before March first.
The green of the tulip stems and leaves
like something I can't remember,
finding a jack-in-the-pulpit
a long time ago and far away.
Why it was December then
and the sun was on the sea
by the temples we'd gone to see.
One green wave moved in the violet sea
like the UN Building on big evenings,
green and wet
while the sky turns violet.
A few almond trees
had a few flowers, like a few snowflakes
out of the blue looking pink in the light.
A gray hush
in which the boxy trucks roll up Second Avenue
into the sky. They're just
going over the hill.
The green leaves of the tulips on my desk
like grass light on flesh,
and a green-copper steeple
and streaks of cloud beginning to glow.
I can't get over
how it all works in together
like a woman who just came to her window
and stands there filling it
jogging her baby in her arms.
She's so far off. Is it the light
that makes the baby pink?
I can see the little fists
and the rocking-horse motion of her breasts.
It's getting grayer and gold and chilly.
Two dog-size lions face each other
at the corners of a roof.
It's the yellow dust inside the tulips.
It's the shape of a tulip.
It's the water in the drinking glass the tulips are in.
It's a day like any other.                                                                                       James Schuyler 

Wonders of Somerville (Union Square)

   Somerville is, like Boston, another town that borders Cambridge. Sumvul has several different neighborhoods, which all have their own character. Houses, three-deckers and apartment buildings are in a variety of styles. Much of the housing stock seems to have been built between the Civil War and 1900– and almost entirely of wood. Buildings featured in this post are all in the Union Square neighborhood.

I'm trying to learn more about this brick building, corner of Bow and Summer Streets. 1870s?
Queen Anne style, and over several tops!

1979 Datsun 510 Wagon

You don't often catch a Datsun on BaT. Japanese cars of that era were inexpensive, reliable (compared to Detroit hulksters) and prone to rust. So this baby's a survivor.

1995 Mercury Marquis Colony Park

The Wagon was spotted on a walking tour of Somerville, Massachusetts the other day. We posted a 1964 Colony Park a while back. And a 1987 Mercury Colony Park in Blue Hill, Maine. A 1989 Mercury Colony Park was for sale at Motorland some years back. 

Like Boston, Somerville is another town that borders Cambridge. Housing stock is an amazing mix of vernacular styles, much of it from the late 19th century, some earlier. Most housing built of wood, sometimes vinyl-clad these days. All kinds of triple-deckers, all over town..(we've posted a bunch on New England triple-deckers; you could start here.)

..and some quite astonishing juxtapositions of different buildings...and sometimes different styles in the same building, as on the right, below. (The yellow and pink buildings are one.) Somerville is fascinating place to walk around if you're interested in vernacular house-building 1850-1920. Like most towns spun around Boston it has a very distinct look and feel. 10 minutes walk from Harvard Yard, and a whole 'nother world.

1997 Volvo 850 wagon, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1941 International Harvester KB

Michael Moore spotted the truck for sale in Sierraville, CA ."It’s been sitting there for years and now there’s a sign on it…"

AL: Then there's the International Model D hidden away in a barn in Saskatchewan.

 

1966 Mercury 100

 

from Alex Emond: "I drove past this truck in Lafleche, Sask... then made a U-turn. The closer look was worthwhile... it's in nice shape, restored and running. As you know, this Mercury is virtually identical to a Ford. It's a Canadian thing. 
"A few years ago I was poised to bid on a Merc truck(below) at an auction, but the price zoomed up to almost C$8,000.00. Whoa. So much for that idea."

AL: We posted a Mercury M-3 truck from Nova Scotia a while back, and a c.1950 Mercury M-2.

Ford Taunus dans le 4iéme arrondissement

 

From Don Culbertson, in Paris: This was a curious find in the 4iéme arrondissement. At first I thought is was an old Peugeot. On closer inspection I thought it said Taurus which turned out to be Taunus–trying to decipher the stylized scripted writing is no easy task. I did a web search only to find that the Ford Taurus was launched only in the 1980's as an American legend for Ford. Changing the r to n brought me to the story of Ford creating this car for the German market with many generations and iterations. I've cut and pasted some material about the 1962 Taunus (below)."

AL: the Taunus hills are near Frankfurt. I spent some time there in Carry Me, my 2016 novel.

Hiking Party, Taunus, Hesse. 1925. HHB in shorts.

1954 Plymouth Belvedere

We have posted a bunch of Belvedere wagons--like Michael Moore's  Mopar sleeper, a while back.And speaking of sleepers, there was this HP2 Belvedere at Motorland a while back.  The 1954 wagon here goes  on the block today at Hemmings.