http://mindofwinter.org/2005/03/05/thaw-kooser/ A forum for discussing poems and poetry Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:02:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://mindofwinter.org/2005/03/05/thaw-kooser/#comment-315 Michael Tue, 08 Mar 2005 05:26:54 +0000 http://mindofwinter.org/2005/03/05/thaw-kooser/#comment-315 I was in Manhattan last Thursday for an interview. As I had a few minutes to pass following the interview before having to leave for the airport, I decided to walk a few blocks over to 5th Avenue for some choice moments of people-watching. As I was waiting to cross Park, I felt a tapping at the back of my heels and looked back to see the end of a white cane, though I would hesitate to call it a "great white porcupine." The man holding the cane realized he had reached the Avenue, and turned to his left instead to cross 51st Street. There are no audible walk signals at that intersection, and they would be of little use, anyway, as cars very frequently continue through the intersection after the light has changed, or turn without much regard for the population of the cross-walks. The light on 51st Street was green, but the man began hesitantly to step into the street, and before I could do anything to prevent it, perhaps encouraged by other people crossing against the light, he strode fully into the street and proceeded to cross. Fortunately, the car coming through slowed to let him pass in front (along with another half dozen people who decided to dash across), but I could well imagine that it would take very little carelessness on anyone's part in similar circumstances to result in serious injury. Manhattan is not a blind-friendly borough in general, with all the overcrowded pedestrian walkways nearly impossible to navigate even for the sighted, the alarming and inescapable noise, and the regular failure of its drivers to obey traffic laws with ordinary strictness. I'm not sure it was my <em>ambitions</em>, as Brian rightly questions, that the man tapped across, but I certainly saw New York in a very different light for a few minutes. What to me is an invigorating display of vibrant city life may well be to him a serious threat to his bodily integrity. I was in Manhattan last Thursday for an interview. As I had a few minutes to pass following the interview before having to leave for the airport, I decided to walk a few blocks over to 5th Avenue for some choice moments of people-watching. As I was waiting to cross Park, I felt a tapping at the back of my heels and looked back to see the end of a white cane, though I would hesitate to call it a “great white porcupine.” The man holding the cane realized he had reached the Avenue, and turned to his left instead to cross 51st Street. There are no audible walk signals at that intersection, and they would be of little use, anyway, as cars very frequently continue through the intersection after the light has changed, or turn without much regard for the population of the cross-walks. The light on 51st Street was green, but the man began hesitantly to step into the street, and before I could do anything to prevent it, perhaps encouraged by other people crossing against the light, he strode fully into the street and proceeded to cross. Fortunately, the car coming through slowed to let him pass in front (along with another half dozen people who decided to dash across), but I could well imagine that it would take very little carelessness on anyone’s part in similar circumstances to result in serious injury. Manhattan is not a blind-friendly borough in general, with all the overcrowded pedestrian walkways nearly impossible to navigate even for the sighted, the alarming and inescapable noise, and the regular failure of its drivers to obey traffic laws with ordinary strictness. I’m not sure it was my ambitions, as Brian rightly questions, that the man tapped across, but I certainly saw New York in a very different light for a few minutes. What to me is an invigorating display of vibrant city life may well be to him a serious threat to his bodily integrity.

]]> http://mindofwinter.org/2005/03/05/thaw-kooser/#comment-314 Brian Tue, 08 Mar 2005 02:45:27 +0000 http://mindofwinter.org/2005/03/05/thaw-kooser/#comment-314 Why "ambitions"? Why “ambitions”?

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