Haikus [from a New York Transplant]

I’m not a poet. [You’ll see why I write that.]

Not even a little bit. [I don’t use words economically.]

I try just for fun.  [And for an attempt at efficacy]

[Last April] The New York Times ran

A haiku contest about

Its lovely city.

So for tonight’s post

I’ll write some awkward haikus. [And count to five and seven repeatedly]

Take a break from prose.

Somewhere on 47th Street on the Upper East Side

MY FIRST VISIT

The Whitney’s moving [according to Rachel and Chris]

From its modernist building.

So long, cave-stairwell. [The stairwell was my favorite part]

Haring. Basquiat. [Two artists I studied in high school]

One big, white gallery room

Curated for me. [So it seemed.]

Basquiat at the Whitney

Jeff Koons’ art would make

Great prompts for horror movies   

Not that I would watch. [Can’t do horror movies.]

Not the horror movie material I was thinking of, but an example of Jeff Koons

Lucy. Rachel. Gab. [We still live in close-ish proximity to each other]

Great visit to the city

To see you again. [Proof to myself that I’m able to keep up with my friends]

ANOTHER VISIT

The Mets or Yankees? [I didn’t have a preference]

I’m just there for the baseball [an evening, after class game]

And my uncle Chris [who got the tickets through work]

We chat and cheer and [We both enjoy baseball]

I wonder if he knows how

Much he means to me. [He’s one of my role models; his siblings are my other heroes.]

Now that I've seen a Mets game, I suppose I have a preference. 

ANOTHER VISIT

The Climate March was

Another grand adventure

Read about it here. [But only if you’d like]

ANOTHER VISIT

Selma ’65 [As in Selma, Alabama, 1965]

A one-act, one woman play [at LaMaMa Theatre in the East Village]

Playwright connections [My playwriting professor knew the playwright]

Three New York Transplants [Myself and two of my friends]

Explored the Upper East Side [Central Park. The Met. The Guggenheim. All before the play]

Paying out the nose [Just for food. Admission to the Met: $2 for a cheap college student.]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Get lost in art!

The Guggenheim

 Spoiler: the Ceiling of the Guggenheim 

Twelve New York Transplants [Some students in my playwriting class]

Bonded on Subway Platforms [Waiting for trains. Giving up and getting on the wrong trains. Back tracking. Missing the train to Bronxville.]

“Late” on Saturday [After the play. Nobody was in the mood to go out, but we stayed out regardless due to the train gumption.]

Grimy. Busy. Hot. [I mean this lovingly. But hand sanitizer’s a good idea]

The New York Subway System. [The more I navigate it the savvier I feel. Best way to explore NYC.]

Please mind/watch the gap. [I'm told in London, they warn, "Mind the Gap", as opposed to "Watch the Gap"]  

I don’t know about you, but I’m rereading these and cringing. If you’ve made it this far, I commend you.

ANOTHER VISIT

Time Square is best spent

With a new friend, after dark,

Among the tourists. [Neither of us wanted to go back straight away after seeing a rehearsal of The Real Thing with Ewan McGregor. So we walked around The Light-Pollution Capital of the America instead]

Somewhere on 42nd Street

My new method for [by “new” I mean “preferred,” but that word had too many syllables]

Getting to know my classmates [re: new friends]

Take a walk in town [one on one conversation while actively going someplace in an “anthill;” sounds like fun to me]

THE LATEST VISIT 

Run down city blocks! [You don’t notice the distance you’re running, strangely]

The play starts in five minutes! [Another assignment for Playwriting: go see When January Feels like Summer]

Evening, peacoat jog. [One of my favorite New York moments so far]

Back to normal, uneconomic prose next time.