now I am not going to face things

Now I am not going to face things
because I am not a start
nor fall asleep against a heart
that doesn't burn the wolves away,
hunting and virtue beside an open fire.
And you know if I drift into the sky
it will be heavy as surf.

"Two Variations," in "Meditations in An Emergency," Frank O'Hara

[No longer visible, Franklin Street below Chicago Avenue]

the exhausted lightning

The exhausted lightning lay down on its side
And slept on a bed of cumulous sheets

"The Horizontal Line (Homage to Agnes Martin", Edward Hirsch

[Chicago River from Michigan Avenue Bridge, astride Wrigley Building, glow from Trump Tower]

softer than the mist

Dust of the feet
And dust of the wheels,
Wagons and people going,
All day feet and wheels.
...
Voices of broken hearts,
Voices singing, singing,
Silver voices, singing,
Softer than the stars,
Softer than the mist.

"Clark Street Bridge," Carl Sandburg

[Michigan Avenue Bridge above Wacker Drive]

♫ take this longing from my tongue

Riley's bike briefly knows tenderness:

Oh take this longing from my tongue,
whatever useless things these hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one you love.

"Take This Longing," Leonard Cohen

[A keenly overlooked location on Chicago Avenue]

♫ i can see now i never really committed

---

I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.

High Fidelity, Nick Hornby, D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack, Scott Rosenberg.

[Rainbo Club, Damen Avenue below Division Street]

a pleasant wavering of the air

In all this springing up was no hint
Of a tide, only a pleasant wavering of the air
In which all things seemed present, whether
Just past or soon to come. It was all invitation.

"Scheherazade," in "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," John Ashbery

tapped

Liz Tapp in front of a piece by Chris Roberson on opening night of a show of his work at Country Club.

[Damen Avenue below Haddon Avenue]

♫ lit

Stephanie, triply lit.

[Continental, Chicago Avenue west of California Avenue]

acute

---

Light as streaked as years-dirty windows.

[Chicago Avenue east of Damen Avenue]

failing

---

Streaking toward dusk. Turner dusk.

[Chicago Avenue east of Damen Avenue]

jess

---

I have never seen hair like Jessie's on any other head.

And behind that brick wall... Liz Phair eked out lots of experiences—and lyrics—for Exile in Guyville.

[Damen Avenue above Haddon Street]

trib towering

A lot of people in Chicago couldn't stand the Tribune. It was against Roosevelt, against unions, against everything Democrats believed in. Journalistically, it was the last of the big powerful papers to catch up with the twentieth century. Reading the Tribune in the 1950s and 1960s you would have had a hard time understanding that this country was going through a major change, the civil rights movement. The Tribune didn't cover it at all. The Tribune's idea of covering a riot in the Sixties was to count the number of broken windows and ask a police commander to comment. The Tribune, for a long time, never had a columnist. Colonel McCormick didn't want any other opinions in the paper but his. It was so politically involved. If you ran for office as a Republican, you had to do whatever the Tribune said. People used to say during the 1950s and 1960s that its political editor, George Tagge, should register as a lobbyist.

Mike Royko, from "Royko: A Life in Print," F. Richard Ciccone

[435 North Michigan Avenue]

arsonland

For the most dissonant night charms us, even after death. This,
after all, may be happiness: tuba notes awash on the great flood,
ruptures of xylophone, violins, limpets, grace-notes, the musical
instrument called serpent, viola da gambas, aeolian harps,
clavicles, pinball machines, electric drills, que saisje encore!

"Rivers and Mountains," John Ashbery

[Chicago Avenue at Damen Avenue]

♫ writing in breath

Matheus Nachtergaele is writing the name of his directorial debut in breath across the Chicago skyline: A Festa da Menina Morta (The Dead Girl's Party).

[Dana Hotel, twenty-eighth floor, State Street at Huron Street]

♫ w

---

I live under a flight path.

---

kristin's nightmare

Seeking sanctuary, you run, run faster, run harder. The heavy doors of the church will open, swing wide. Safety. Salvation. Cement blocks. A concrete wall.

[St. Boniface, Noble Street at Chestnut Street]

fullstop.

---

The eye wanders.

[Beat Kitchen, Belmont Avenue at Hoyne Avenue]

♫ orbis

---

Uncross your eyes.

---

serpentine

Dawn: damage done.

[Damen Avenue below Grand Avenue]

a stir of dust

---

Moon peers; follows you round the town.

There is a stir of dust from old leaves
Will you trade roses for acorns...

"Canto LXXIX," Ezra Pound

[Thomas Street west of Hoyne Street]

thurber's light-juggling tiger

---

James Thurber observed that the sight of a near-blind man is a wondrous thing, especially in cities, in traffic. The oncoming vision of a bright orange tiger juggling glowing orbs of green and red, for instance.

[California Avenue]

♫ falling

---

[Chicago Avenue, westward]

♫ walker

---

In dreams, no one answers your call. No one turns their head. No one pauses. They are going away.

[Chicago Avenue west of California Avenue]

mieze

---

Stenciled katz won't fade away. Always the thought of a shadow of a kitten left by a nuclear detonation.

[Damen Avenue above Division Street]

♫ set

---

Pollution's prettiness.

[Looking west from Chicago Avenue at Damen Avenue]

beards

Regardez-moi.

[Architrouve, Chicago Avenue east of Bishop Street]

obama ahead

---

[Kings Cross, London]

daylight savings

Night's pumpkin flush.

[Damen Avenue above Thomas Street]

cww

---

I wanted to make a census of varieties of cast-iron utility covers in the neighborhood, but suddenly, they're being replaced with strange plastic coverlets.

[Damen Avenue below Augusta Boulevard]

transform

Illuminating grid by night, briefly, intermittently, between cover of cloud.

[Alley behind Damen Avenue above Rice Street]

west, north

The eye wanders. Shadows gather. Shadows more solid than objects in motion.

[Beat Kitchen, Belmont Avenue at Hoyne Avenue]