(Not So) Gritty Urban Poetry

September 20, 2006 - 8:51 AM by Allison

Yaara muses over at One Jerusalem as to how to boil city living in Israel down to its essence:

What do city people have to say about life? And where do they get their inspiration from? I mean, poets around here don’t go outside to the open fields and admire blooming nature, nor do they chase gazelles up a wild forest. And I don’t think there are many attics in Israel, or feather pens for that matter.

Actually, I wonder what urban life is all about, anyway. Working 9 to 5 (or 7), going out to pubs, listening to avant-garde music, meeting snazzy people, refusing to settle down, livin’ la vida loca … Or maybe – being tired and lonely, trying to make ends meet, losing consciousness as well as the will to live…?

Oh, all those damned clichés.

About city life in Israel I can tell you that it ain’t L.A. or Harlem, so you shouldn’t expect any Bukowski or Langston Hughes, nor is this smoggy London, so no Blake either. But I guess it is indeed a sort of an insane mixture of constant change, infinite possibilities, high aspirations, Great Expectations, self-consciousness, loneliness and depression. Add to it some booze, some drugs, and a lot of sex. Let’s see…

The buildings are grey
And so is my life
Shall I go out and play
Or finally find myself
A wife?

Well, you can’t say I didn’t try (don’t bother with the meter! This is a modern piece of poetry, after all).

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