Is that once too much???
P vertiginously
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Vincent
Sent: 12 August 2012 17:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Snap - Vincent
Yes! Twice!Stephen
--- On Sun, 8/12/12, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Snap - Vincent
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sunday, August 12, 2012, 9:17 AM
Vincent thanks intense! I just Do we the imposing 'Vertiginous' word twice??
Cheers patrick
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Vincent
Sent: 08 August 2012 00:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Snap - Vincent
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(A snap newly refined from my journal en route in Turkey)
Monday, June 4, 2012??
?
The
intense presence of Istanbul as a vertiginous space ? particularly so as we walk &/or take the ?vehicular tram? down the steep hill from the Galata Tower to the Galata Bridge. The walk across the Golden Horn, the name for the extended body of water between the old town- the Faith District which is full of ancient churches and mosques ? and the Galata neighborhood which was once the home of Christians, refugee Jews, other tribes and criminals.? The Bridge's wide east side pedestrian walkway is crowded; young and old, fishing rods in hand, shoulder to shoulder, including a few women friends or family among them, hold their rods out or prop them on the side edge of the protective steel rail; occasionally they variously break to lean over the walkway to prepare their hooks with fresh bait. This constant visual presence of people fishing ? as we discover - can strike one as almost a religious rite.
The waiting at what is now the darkening edge of dusk, waiting, the pulling back on the poles in response to a nibble, the occasional catch of a fish, their singular silver bellied dark bodies dangling through the late light, lowered on to the sidewalk, then released into a white bucket. They may be sardines or small bass, I don?t know. Most fascinating is, pole in hand, the intense focus, and among some, the deep quiet of the waiting. A kind of secular prayer. It?s as if to get a nibble or to hook an actual fish is to confirm the existence, the vital living existence of one?s soul. Looking here at Istanbul?s citizens, stretched out across the bridge one might imagine that each was filled with an isolated interior darkness without a connection to anything. The loneliness that accompanies the quest to make contact with a fish, and the sense of desire that accompanies it, is practically palpable. Vertiginous.
Stephen Vincent
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