The Bicycles And The Apex

Well, I've got some updates on recycling in the office, and some stories about places and people that have been an inspiration to my environmental sensibilities, but for now, as I get back into the swing of things, I present this poem, circa 1965, by George Oppen:

The Bicycles And The Apex

How we loved them
Once, these mechanisms;
We all did. Light
And miraculous

They have gone stale, part
Of the platitude, the gadgets,
Part of the platitude
Of our discontent.

Van Gogh went hungry and what shoe salseman
Does not envy him now? Let us agree
Once and for all that neither the slums
Nor the tract houses

Represent the apex
Of the culture.
They are the barracks. Food

Produced, garbage disposed of,
Lotions sold, flat tires
Changed and tellers must handle money

Under supervision but it is a credit to no one
So that the slums are made dangerous by gangs
And suburbs by the John Birch Societies

But we loved them once,
The mechanisms. Light
And miraculous...