Biking to the George Washington Bridge by Alicia Ostriker

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 2, 2017   Biking to the George Washington Bridge   Alicia Ostriker

It sweeps away depression and today you can't tell the heaped pin-white cherry blossoms abloom along Riverside Drive from the clouds above it is all kerfluffle, all moisture and light and so into the wind I go past Riverside Church and the Fairway Market, past the water treatment plant and in the dusky triangle below a hulk of rusted railroad bed a single hooded boy is shooting hoops   It's ten minutes from here to the giant bridge men's engineering astride the sky heroic an animal roar of motors on it the little red lighthouse at its foot big brother befriending little brother in the famous children's story eight minutes back with the wind behind me passing the boy there alone shooting his hoops in the gloom   A neighborhood committee must have said that space should be used for something recreational a mayor's aide must have said okay so they put up basketball and handball courts and if it were a painting or a photo you would call it American loneliness            Copyright © 2017 Alicia Ostriker. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Biking to the bridge is one of my favorite activities since becoming a permanent New York City resident for the first time since I was eighteen. The bike path has the Hudson River on one side, traffic on the other, and I can do the ride in an hour door to door.  If the poem captures both the energy of the city and the sorrow and loneliness threading through it, I'll be satisfied." —Alicia Ostriker   Alicia Ostriker is the author of Waiting for the Light, forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in February. She lives in New York City and teaches in the MFA program at Drew University.   Photo credit: J. P. Ostriker    Poetry by Ostriker   Waiting for the Light (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017) "Window Seat: Providence to New York City" by Jacqueline Osherow "Island" by Greg Wrenn "Self-Portrait on the Street of an Unnamed Foreign City" by Jennifer Grotz Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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