(an oil painting after Constable….JKB)
The streets are gleaming tonight
as if a million stars were brought to earth,
flattened into urban mirrors
under lamp posts reflecting
an empty nothingness.
It is a dull mid-winter night,
straining towards spring
with all intention of leaching
the dying season’s
last insult, unleashing it
upon mankind’s discomfort
one more time.
“A foggy day in London town”
Is what I think when I look down
This cotton-wool streetscape,
But that has tune and purpose,
And this muted stillness has none.
The rain left a muffling fog,
Mercifully erasing stark bones
of tree limbs reaching to the sky.
Black beggars on seasonal parade.
Yet,
there is a strange beauty to the night,
Transforming what was common,
Dissolving borders, barriers, dimensions,
Making a mirage, an alien oasis.
Heavy mists swirl around the ground,
Lift past the unfocused light
combine with the creeping gloom
And turn a fine hand to pale mystery.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrghted, 2020
Tags: "A Foggy Day in London Town", "Poem of the Night", flattened urban mirrors, poetry
Lady Nyo's Weblog 
June 3, 2020 at 5:51 am
In the heat of this summer, your poem has brought peace and respite, Jane. The opening stanza is exquisite, with the image of stars being ‘flattened into urban mirrors’ – they reflect the ‘empty nothingness’ of the pandemic, which is now sadly filled with horror. Dull mid-winter nights ‘straining towards spring’ seem so distant now. I love the image in the lines:
‘The rain left a muffling fog,
Mercifully erasing stark bones
of tree limbs reaching to the sky’.
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June 11, 2020 at 2:28 am
Kim I don’t know if I replied to your comment, but it was beautiful to my eyes and filled me with joy in the reading. Yes, this pandemic has changed everything. It’s difficult to know what to do to keep safe except total isolation, which is impossible. I think of the “Plague Years” and wonder how different are we really from that era. But we have advanced medicine and science to play with….but the life we have lived will never be the same. Only Love is the same and kindness we need in big draughts. You are in my heart, dear friend fellow writer. As always.XOX
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June 11, 2020 at 5:32 am
😍
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