Best Streetcars Poems

Photo: RIVERVIEW AMUSEMENT PARK
                        ~POSTED BY MY GUARDIAN ANGEL~


We were just kids in silken ribbons and braids,
Playing cut-outs in Chicago's summers toasty...

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- a solo nijuin renku -

English version by Liviu Martinescu

entrance to an underground
crowds in winter's clouds
and an atomic clock to boot

          the first snowflakes on
          the punching...

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The old, the new barely meet on the street of Bardstown road, yet diversity so unique, from Cherokee to the rarity, stepping forth in time with the antique structures surrounding you, from magnetic tape recordings to punk truly a highland of culture. The Victorian and...

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Dear Local Boards of EcoSchool Education,
Departments of Environmentally Protected Walkable Transportation,
Cooperatively Maintaining Public-Private Works
and STEAM Play
and WinWin GreenGames,
Hysterical Historical Associations,
Social Work Departments of Climate Restorative Therapy,
and Public Health-Wealth Departments:

Did you leave anyone out dear?

Just the usual lower non-elite 10 to 50 percent
still graduating from WinLose...

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Before Trolleys, the Streetcar

A streetcar could write a book of its own,
It could tell of love and hate.
Young girls proud of their very first job,
Men in ties and suits, their fate.

Ladies in hats and gloves shopping,
Laborers, waitresses in uniforms,
Mothers with babies nursing,
Anyone who rode, rode...

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© Ben Burton 8/16/2015

As my time on this earth dwindles
Toward those final sips of coffee
After appetizer, entree
And dessert have been devoured
I grieve all those wasted moments
When I only saw forever
Endless time to make it happen
Led me to procrastination
Watching days turn into leap years
Without leaping on...

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The road seems endless
Nighttime quickens fear
Unfamiliar, a stranger
In this bus
The air, humid and thick
With danger, angry
Glances swim upstream
Avoiding fallen hate
At first, some were friendly
As hours and days passed
They disappeared, maybe
Changing direction, or
Means of transport, as
Streetcars rattled down the
Middle of the road, always
Heading back to sadness
Women...

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There was a time
not so very long ago
when clopping horses
and sighing sleighs
and paddle splashing canoes,
and then, later, trains
and electric streetcars
were the resounding heart
of multicultural transportation.

And local newspapers
with indigenous, 
perennially planted village editors
among ecoschooled
one-room patriarchal chiefs
competed only with local gossip
in barber shops
and beauty parlors
for communicating hearts,
listening...

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*VIDEO of San Francisco by Scott McKenzie, Cheers to Tony Bennett.

City of Hearts and Home by the Bay

Day star's mist yields to its grip of a bridge,
Span steel strands, harp-like, golden tags a smidge,
Light drapes the streetcars, up and down the hills,
Chimes, mass speeches, music,...

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her hands: blooming. sugar, hot
and humming. those wrists, sweet,
no longer sticky. yet stubborn,
reigning the laughter of two years ago.

her lips: fruit. ripe, or rotten, you
no longer remember. still, they remind you.
sin is where your body overruns your soul.
let nature trespass you once in a while.

all...

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I JUST HAD, TO ASK THE QUESTION,
WHAT'S REALLY, GOING ON?
SO I OPENED A DOOR IN THE UNIVERSE,
FOUND A PEAK TO PONDER ON.

ODD THINGS SEEM TO HAPPEN
AND NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE.
ONCE IN FICTION MOVIES,
NOW, IT'S EVERYWHERE.

NO ONE, SAW THE UPRISE.
NO ONE, SAW THE THE FALL.
OTHERS,...

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I was here when television wasn’t…
Movies in color were still a new thing
Cars were mostly black

I was here when jet planes weren’t…
Telephones were bulky and hung from the wall
Most every town had a railroad track

I was here when satellites and smartphones didn’t exist
Cars were smoky...

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Though I’ve walked these streets
To one block or another 
I never saw what was
Laid down under
I saw some old photos today
That took my breath away 
A place I never knew 
A place I never stayed 
I saw hills and farms 
In place of these busy...

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Chicago.Long,long ago.a tribute..

Perfectly sweet, State Street.
The Chicago Theater, beautiful to a fault.
Going to Woolworth's for a twenty-cent chocolate  malt.

No maniacs to fear.
No people walking about with stenchy
beer,
Their gigantic boom boxes attacking 
my ears.

Mothers wore dresses, their lovely
Daughters, too.
Daddy wore a suit, his sons
Very proudly, too.

Marshall Fields stood, strong, silent and...

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That circular object that brought revolution,
That, like greased bearings, made human labor easy;
Like machines many, this made its contribution,
The times to change and the cultures to be breezy...!

Carts moved fast; war chariots advanced gorgeously,
This brought out, in agriculture, green whirl, and twirl;
Windmills functioned smoothly; crafts...

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