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My City Calls (Visual poetry)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

10 years of this blog!

AD MULTOS ANNOS

Poem "My City Calls" typed up in the shape of a city, including a Gothic Cathedral. In the sky, chimes, smoke, snow or rain, typed in special characters.
Inscription "C.C.A.A.", very clear, on old broken stone monument.

Celebrating ten years of this blog with two new versions of one of the first poems published here: “My City Calls” typed up as a cityscape around a Gothic Cathedral and as a church bell.

The additional letters at the end might be the notes of the bells – but they are also a clue to the identity of the city!

Poem "My City Calls" typed up in the shape of a church bell, with some ornaments of special characters.

You can click on the visual poems to read the text more clearly
and go to the plain text via the link above.

Visual poems My City Calls (Cityscape) and My City Calls (Church Bell). Christina Egan ©2024. Developed from the text My City Calls (1995/2012).

Von stählernen Waben (Wortbild)

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Visual poem of the text Von gläsernen Waben. The words are typed up into a grid with large hollows, like buildings with yards. Some words are located in these spaces, like people walking about. In the centre, the words “Du” (You) and “Ich” (“I”).

Visual poem developed from the text Von stählernen Waben (see below). Christina Egan ©2024.

For the English text version and links to similar poems, see When Webs of Steel / Von stählernen Waben.

For the English visual version and for a related word cloud, see the previous post, Webs of Steel (Visual Poetry).

Von stählernen Waben

Von stählernen Waben und gläsernen Wänden
beschränkt auf ein spärliches gräsernes Eck,
steh’ stille und spüre dein Blut in den Händen:
Du hast ein Gesicht; und du hast ein Geschick.

Will keiner dich kennen, verstehen und lieben,
gibt keiner verborgene Neigungen her,
hol’ Atem – hol’ Atem – und freu’ dich am Leben:
Ich weiß es ja, bin ja bei dir übers Meer!

Christina Egan © 2015

When Webs of Steel (Visual poetry)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment
Visual poem of: https://eganpoet.net/2015/12/11/when-webs-of-steel/. The worda are tped up into two squares, with some in the middle, like a person walking about in the yard of a building.
Word cloud on black, most words pale, some words glaring. In the middle, "glass", "steel", "doors", "sun".


Visual poem developed from the text When webs of steel (see below). Christina Egan ©2024.
Word cloud Steel & Glass of twelve English poems about big cities on this website. Christina Egan ©2024.

Visual poem typed up on a Word document. Word cloud designed on Simple Word Cloud Generator.
For the German version and links to similar poems, see When Webs of Steel / Von stählernen Waben.
For the inspiration for the design of the word cloud, see Glass Mountain (Potsdamer Platz).

When Webs of Steel

When webs of steel and walls of glass
confine you to a square of grass –
stand still and feel your sap pulsate:
You have a face. You have a fate.

When no one listens, no one knows you,
when no one loves you or else shows you,
take a deep breath – take two – take cheer:
I know, across the seas. I’m here.

Christina Egan © 2009

Durch uns durch / The Letter that was Never Sent

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Durch uns durch

Der Baum des Lebens spannt sich himmelweit,
um uns herum und durch uns durch verzweigt.
Verwandt, verflochten sind wir,– Wirklichkeit,
die unterm windgepeitschten Widerstreit
niemand mehr wahrnimmt, niemand mehr bezeugt.

Die Menschenchronik spricht von Krieg und schweigt
von tiefverwurzelter Verbundenheit;
der mondenhelle Engelskodex schreibt
in Purpurlettern für die Ewigkeit
von durch und durch verwobner Menschenzeit.

Christina Egan © 2018

Ancient codex in neat rounded golden letters set in purple frames.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Codex Aureus of Lorsch, written around 810 AD in inks containing real gold or purple. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons.

The Letter that was Never Sent

It was of solid purple paper,
set out in blocks of golden ink,
an extract from a pagan gospel:
the letter that was never sent,

the letter that was never written,
but golden breathed in someone’s brain
and purple ran in someone’s veins –
the letter that was dreamt in vain.

Christina Egan © 2012

City Made of Dreams / Stadt aus Träumen

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City Made of Dreams

This is the city made of dreams: it knows
no end. Its splendid roads roll on and round
the bristling castles and across the mound
and down across the squares. Its fabric glows.
But right below this net of rugged ground
a second net of ample pathways flows:
the rivers and canals in sparkling bows;
below the bridges, barges go around.
I stand astounded, lost amongst the towers
and giant spires, and walk on for hours…
This is the ancient city without end.
A steep and green embankment is resounding
with laughter and guitars, with life abounding.
This is the Queen of Flanders: this is Ghent.

Christina Egan © 2018

Castle with turrets directly on high street, with life-size statues of historical figures in front.

Stadt aus Träumen

Dies ist die Stadt aus Träumen. Ihr Gehege
ist grenzenlos. Die stolzen Straßen klimmen
empor den Hügel, strömen um die Zinnen
und über Plätze, leuchtendes Gewebe.
Doch unter jenem rauhen Netz der Wege
sieht man ein zweites weites Netz sich krümmen,
Kanäle oder Flüsse glitzernd rinnen,
und Boote gleiten unter breite Stege.
Ich steh verwundert, wandere verloren
im riesenhaften Wald von Türmen, Toren…
Dies ist die Altstadt, die kein Ende kennt.
Die steile grüne Böschung hallt mir wider
vom frohen Rhythmus der Gitarrenlieder.
Dies ist die Königin von Flandern: Ghent.

Christina Egan © 2018

Bridge over river lined by ancient stone and brick buildings with steep gables.

In both languages, the poem follows the same strict sonnet form.

There are only five rhymes, placed as: abba – baab – cce – dde. The final line is linked to one other line, with both of them carrying the main message together: “This is the ancient city without end. / This is the Queen of Flanders: this is Ghent.”

There are also enjambments, particularly “it knows / no end”: unusually, a very short sentence is cut in half so that the vastness of the place is felt in the pause at the end of the line.

The verse are also full of assonances and alliterations and other sound clusters, e.g. “verwundert, wandere” and the corresponding “stand astounded”. In this way, the form of the poem corresponds to the content, a description of a web of roads and rivers and a forest of towers and battlements.

Form and content cannot be separated. This is an essay; the above is a poem!

Photographs of Ghent: Christina Egan © 2018.

Geflecht / Geflechte

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Geflecht

Jedes Leben ist verstrickt,
Masche um Masche, Stich um Stich,
in die Leben neben ihm,
ob wir’s wollen oder nicht.

Jede Reihe ist verschlungen,
ohne daß das Garn je bricht,
in das vorige Geflecht,
ob wir’s wissen oder nicht.

Jeder Jahrgang ist der Boden
für die nächste bunte Schicht:
Kaum geboren, sind wir Ahnen
für ein künftiges Geschlecht.

Christina Egan © 2015

Silk cloth dominated by vivid pinks and greens.

Geflechte
(Altstadt von Köln)

Reihen auf Reihen von Häusern,
hell und freundlich im Frühlingslicht,
Reihen auf Reihen von Fenstern,
schimmernd in allen Augenfarben.

Und hinter einem jeden Fenster
Gesichter… Geschichten… Geflechte.
Und unter einem jeden Pflaster
Pflaster… Pfade… Schwellen.

Stockwerk um Stockwerk von Leben,
hinauf ins ausgelassene Blau!
Schicht um Schicht von Geschichte
bis in den unbetretenen Staub.

Ich strecke mich hin auf dem Mäuerchen hier
und höre die Vögel und höre ein Herz –
Das Herz diese Platzes? Das Herz dieser Stadt?
Mein eigenes Herz, wie es schlägt für die Stadt?

Christina Egan © 2016

These poems describe human life as a knitted or woven tissue: every person is a mesh amongst, above, and below others. Every little life is part of a layer of history, as every modest buidling and ordinary street is.

Every life is interwoven with  others. Every single one of us is history!

I wrote the second poem on the way back from Cologne, where I had briefly rested on a little wall, which turned out to be in the area of the ancient forum and which in hindsight reminded me of excavated foundations.

For a poem on weaving words into a poem, see the previous post, Word Weaver.

Photograph: Silk cloth from Madagascar. – © The Trustees of the British Museum

Word Weaver

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Word Weaver

More purple clouds than I can count
or weigh or paint for you
or snatch and send them underground
with some surrounding blue…

To one whose windows do not stretch
to spy the heaving sky,
I’ll weave my syllables to fetch
the purple passing by.

To one whose dusk and marble moon
are filtered through a rail,
I must thread silver on my loom
to leave a shiny trail.

I must request the best black silk
to mark the balmy dark…
By day I’ll stitch a roaring quilt
to catch the city’s heart!

Christina Egan © 2016

Drawing of the mechanics of a loom (yarn on rolls, without the frame)The poet describes the world to a prisoner who can barely see the majestic ever-changing sky and the bright busy city surrounding them. The sound and rhythm of the lines emulate the warp and weft of life, so that the words reflect the world — read the poem aloud and you will see!

The other person may be imprisoned by a totalitarian state or indeed by a democratic state, or locked up by their employers or indeed their own family, behind walls and perhaps under a garment. There are many millions of human beings who de facto are prisoners or slaves without being called so.

For poems about time (for instance ensuing generations) and space (for instance a big city) as a tissue, see my post Geflecht / Geflechte. All of civilisation and all of humanity is one web.

Ich behaupte das Dach über Dächern

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Ich behaupte das Dach über Dächern

I.

Ich behaupte das Dach über Dächern
und Wipfeln und Kuppeln der Stadt,
im sonnengeladenen Himmel
ein lebensgeladenes Blatt!

Eine Fahne in sattesten Farben,
ein Winken: „Ich bin! Ich bin hier!“
Mein Herz reißt sich los aus dem Leibe
und fliegt über Meere zu dir.

View from high up along building of concrete, steel and glass to the right, with lawn and trees to the left and clouds in blue sky above.

II.

Ich betrachte die Bäume von oben:
erst leuchtend, dann dürr und dann kahl.
Ich zeichne die Großstadt, gewoben
aus Backstein und Kalkstein und Stahl.

Mein Auge drängt aber hinüber
zum Rande der Stadt und des Lands,–
mein Herz glaubt noch immer, es fliege
zu dir mit dem Goldwolkenglanz!

Christina Egan © 2016

 

Photograph: Christina Egan © 2016

The person who ‘holds the position on the
roof above roofs’ gets the bigger picture:
observing the city, the sky, the seasons;  
aware of being a part of the fabric of life.

But really, she or he just wants to fly beyond
the horizon, to be united with a beloved one…
who might turn out to be an illusion of desire.
These lines evoke immanent transcendence.

These poems may work in a translation software.

When Webs of Steel / Von stählernen Waben

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

When Webs of Steel

When webs of steel and walls of glass
confine you to a square of grass –
stand still and feel your sap pulsate:
You have a face. You have a fate.

When no one listens, no one knows you,
when no one loves you or else shows you,
take a deep breath – take two – take cheer:
I know, across the seas. I’m here.

Christina Egan © 2009

—

Von stählernen Waben

Von stählernen Waben und gläsernen Wänden
beschränkt auf ein spärliches gräsernes Eck,
steh’ stille und spüre dein Blut in den Händen:
Du hast ein Gesicht; und du hast ein Geschick.

Will keiner dich kennen, verstehen und lieben,
gibt keiner verborgene Neigungen her,
hol’ Atem – hol’ Atem – und freu’ dich am Leben:
Ich weiß es ja, bin ja bei dir übers Meer!

Christina Egan © 2015

—

In these lines, the anonymous and monotonous modern life described in Amidst the rush / Schrumpft die Welt and höhlenmenschen / cavemen
is overcome: whenever individuals become aware of themselves — and appreciate each other — as unique personalities.

This poem may be declaring love or expressing affection between family members or close friends.