painting by Piet Mondrian.
Broadway Dirge
“Glory falls all around us as we sob a dirge
of desolation at the Cross.”--Maya Angelou
Staring at Broadway Boogie Woogie by Piet
Mondrian, painted in 1943, what I see, beyond
the striking red-white-blue (America) plus golden
sunshine yellow ( hope & wealth) with a spotless
white background color scheme, is geometry,
symmetry, a tidy map of wartime New York City--
tightly controlled and organized, patriotic, almost
a Pollyanna canvas;
and beyond that I see an abstract map of the New
York subway system directly below Times Square,
the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line, tiny bullet
trains juiced up with electricity speeding through
the underworld darkness.
The New York subway opened up in 1904, with
the coalition of five companies. By 1932, it was
overseen by a transit authority. Presently it serves
6 million riders a day, or at least it did until Covid-19
attacked NYC like an alien invasion.
Today the bustle and marques of Broadway has been
extinguished, leaving it dark, empty, lifeless--and under
its mourner’s skirts, at 2 a.m. the subway trains are
cleaned and disinfected. Mondrian today would create
a dystopian painting; red and black geometric splotches
on a dirty white background, and retitle it Broadway
Dirge.
Pigeons in Time Square
nest over closed signs, being
alert for the hawks.
image from fineartamerica.com
Glenn Buttkus
Haibun
Posted over at d'Verse Poets Pub
18 comments:
Wow! This is interesting, Glenn, ekphrastic with factual historical overtones. Now you’ve pointed it out, I can see the red-white-blue and the golden sunshine yellow, and the abstract map of the New York subway with the ‘tiny bullet trains juiced up with electricity speeding through the underworld darkness’. Thank you for the background history, which is completely new and to me. I like the way the final paragraph brings it all up to pandemic date with a Broadway dirge.
This is a really great interpretation of the painting Glenn. Pigeons on "Closed" signs says it all about the time we are experieicing! Well done!
As always, razor sharp and cutting edge. Pigeons on "closed" signs is a keeper too!
Well to tell the truth, my first impression was subway map. But, I didn't go with that impression in my haibun.
Luv your haibun and the opening Maya Angelou quote. Nice.
Happy Monday
Much💟love
I like your description of how things changed when Covid-19 "attacked NYC like an alien invasion".
a very sharp insightful commentary ... what it was to what it is!
Who would have thought a city could transform so radically so quickly!
Did you work in Dimboola ... coz I saw it several times!
Interesting view of it, Glenn.
The difference I see between Corvus pandemic and WWII is that in WWII we refashioned our industrial selves in very quick order into a co-ordinated effort to support our armies with weapons and supplies, whereas now we cannot even manage to turn out enough testing kits and masks - objects far more simple to produce than tanks, destroyers and airplanes.
Broadway Dirge, indeed. Well done, Glenn.
We really did follow similar pathways...the pigeons are a great touch. And the hawk...I saw one the other day. Nature has its way here too.
I agree with you Glenn on how he would envisage New York City today. Loved the Haiku.
I like that you put what you think he would paint now. That is an interesting perspective to think about, especially during this pandemic. I agree that the colors would not be so vibrant.
I agree with others. pigeons on closed signs watching. Says so much. It was great the way you pulled in some history and tied it all together with current events.
Interesting history and relevant imagery on the stark changes Covid 19 has wrought on New York and its subway system.
Thank you for the brief history, it's always fun to pick up tipbits of history from these sorts of linkups.
To be honest I'd not spared much thought for empty train stations, though now I think about it they must be odd places at the moment. Spaces carved out for a purpose, waiting to be filled again. However, it won't be the first pandemic some of those stations have seen.
What a fantastic interpretation of the art Glenn!
Oh yes we both saw the subway... I have never been on that one, but moved myself to Stockholm subway which is much more modern. It is our normal route to town... but I don't go there at present.
For me Glenn, this is one of your best. The description of the subway system, from its beginnings to the days of Covid where now it is under mourners' skirts....just an excellent rendition of what has happened in the city that never sleeps.....although now it writhes instead.Well done!
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