braveandrecklessblog

SEPTA

My Morning Commute

Restless commuters

Coffee to-go cups

Noses buried in Smartphones

Kindles/Nooks/Books

Monthly Trailpasses/Smartpasses

Inadequate shelter on concrete platform

Signal Light for tain

The one commuter paying fare in coin, holding up the line, inevitablably on a rainy or frosty morning

Standing-room-only view from under an armpit

The fight through the crowded as I near my stop, anxiety heightened

 

My Evening Commute

Tired, subdued commuters

Loud, lively children with energy I envy

Sticky floor and discarded Metros

Contraband pizza being eaten

The guy with the bicycle nudging everyone over

Sharp curves taken at too fast a speed

Platform signs hard to read in winter dark

The commuter who desperately needs a shower and antiperspirant

My favorite conductor making humorous overhead announcements and chatting with passengers

Long walk up the steep hill to my snug house

 

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18 thoughts on “SEPTA”

      1. i read about these classes and an amazed the things they come up with for exercise and practice. A friend in the UK has been sharing his, and I get to read his course work which inspires me to think writing is not so simple after all, but you did this one justice, there’s a flow yet, disjointed feel of all the different “objects” we see. Being on trains or buses like this has always been food for thought for me too, even walking to work, you really get to absorb the people. i am enjoying reading you.

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        1. Thank you! This is my very first creative Writing Class and the majority of the students are undergraduates at the University I work at but I really enjoy the class and it challenging my ideas about writing form. I am hoping to get into a summer class here called Writing in a Digital Culture which pushed the envelope even further. I have also been experimenting with micro poetry on Twitter.

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          1. i am an absolute fan of micro poetry but can’t do it, I got mixed up with a guy who did this like we do breathing, but he has since moved on to other things. Its finding the rhythm words make as they bounce and he used to tell me – feel the words, they will come, different from haiku, micro has to flow. I am still hoping he will return. i wrote one once and that was it. i would love to see your approach on this, you have lots of soul in the words.

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          2. Actually I have been abstracting out of my larger works. Sometimes just pulling a out a poignant line, sometimes reworking, sometimes deconstructing. Kind of feels like it is giving them new life. One was “sadness swallowing you whole
            too weary to fight
            you are going down without a sound
            slipping into deep stillness
            where my arms do not reach” another was “I ignore the mouse
            Scurrying in the kitchen
            Non-aggression treaty intact
            As long as we do not come face-to-face”
            It is mostly just wordplay, fun

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          3. yes something like this, but all the words need to bring it back to the title at the very top, then its a real micro, well to me anyway, and i am not an expert, just love this sort of style but haven’t found another master at this. i am amazed and admire some of you who have poems you can pull out from the past like that and remaster! and yes he did that usually, pulled out a section of his writing and said here’s one. he used to say it out loud and told me if it rolls off the tongue it can fall on the page. Thank you for reminding me of this memory I almost forgot.

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          5. all the kids these days are doing this and the ones in the projects started it actually, first hand account here, and its raw and very sensual at times, even talking about school and life that is hard to live up to. i have no skill, here, verbosity has me trapped viciously and wont let go!

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          10. I was hired because of my social work background– we work with individuals with rare early onset dementias and their families. I am often the first person a caregiver speaks to who actually understands what they are going through. A quarted of these cases are caused by genetic mutation so I often do a lot of psychoeducation and resource referral in addition to be the only administrator at the biggest neurological research center at the University.

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