Supply side

Today we are at J. Aiello and Sons Produce Wholesalers in Albany, NY, looking at the geometries of shipping and storing fresh produce supplies before they reach restaurants and other food retailers. It's interesting to see how things stack up. Read and see more about our friend Joe Aiello's company and the business of stacking pallets at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Geometry of labor

The broad and convivial
currency exchange
of thick flat pallets --
arriving with food, with fruit,
with flowers of earth lifted with itinerant strength
on seeming toothpick tethers --
they voyage round the world
supporting endless supply
and making no demand
but that you mind your boots,
and do not crush their shells:
like mollusks they withstand
a furious range of swells
only to be scuttled
by an errant sole.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1978, 1983, and 1984 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

A horse is a horse

Ever see a bright blue horse painted with roses by the side of the road? You can if you're in Saratoga Springs, NY; and you can see lots of other painted horses that are part of the town's ongoing trademark public art display. Read about these fabulous ponies and see some photos at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Horse fancy

Sky inside divine,
a rose pointed at the hip,
wingless fury
windless canter --
a pantomime
celebrated end-to-end
in deep design.
No tail breeze
can ruffle a stamp coat
or furrow an ocean brow;
no anatomical muster
surpasses joint by joint
the artful prowess
of a inspired calliope steed.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1965, 1973, and 1969 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Time after time

From the vantage point of a doomed love affair, this romantic poem is as much about the charming Victorian hotel where it takes place as it is about the central pas de deux: photos in today's blog feature the famed Adelphi Hotel in Saratoga Springs, which dates from 1873. Read and see more about it at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Encounter

This is where we'll meet,
you and I, not casually
but cheek-rosy as if
the fetid pointed hearts
hung outside the veranda
could tell the truth
like little words hung from hotel doors --
while inside speaks, I'll show you mine if...
This game we play
alone on perfect sunlit days,
how old it grows,
and still how young we seem.
Throw a shade --
now the dim, now the lamp
invites a wayward secondary
thought to love where love
had thrown itself too much into relief.
Pretend, pretend
and shadow subtleties
my eye can only hide
and determine to forget.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1966, 1968, and 1970 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

A change of pace

Lions and horses and mineral springs -- oh my! There are a couple of elements to today's photo topic, cenetered on the lovely town of Saratoga Springs, which entered its heyday in the 1850s with spas and thoroughbred racing. More on the architecture and history of this stylish place at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Felix rex

Four paws athwart
disaster, challenging man
and maker, gruffly firm --
this bustle-burb
stoked on the flow
of genial waters
tweaks the nonexistant whisker
of its surly antiquarian
protectors: it's horseflesh, only
horseflesh drives this town, not lions' pose,
imposing as it is,
and thought to dare;
no one could care much less
for cats where just a mile
from their recoil are turf and grass,
the spring of silver trumpets
bursting fillies, foals
from intrepid ease
into the midday dry demesne.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1960 and 1959 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Women in love

Why do girls like horses so much? At Saratoga, the picture is clear. We take a look at some generational bonding over thoroughbreds, and some stabs at answering the age-old question. Words and images located at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

New blood

If they had said
it would be so big
you might have believed it --
they say lots of things,
and some prove to be true enough.
But this heaving, sweating beast;
scary, aloof, and cross --
is this what your battered pink toys
are meant to resemble?
Hold the hand
that protects you from harm,
until the day arrives when suddenly
you can reign up at large,
determining hand over hand
how far it is to fall.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1940, 1941, and 1943 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Hard work pays off

It's Saratoga Racing season, and Andrew and Amy are at the track. This blogpost begins a series including photos of Sunday's Race 2 winner, Erin Enchanted, and some background about her. Read and see more about Saratoga this week at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Determination

Maybe it is easier
to pick a number
or a name --
in the pricking heat
my eyes pore over
your rippled mercury flank,
your memory bank of journeys won
their critical pass and distance story --
I can nearly feel the bones
disseminate through their
launching points,
far off at the imminent gate:
will you make six furlongs
at the front?
can breeding and feed
charge your reckoned heart
 to will the unwieldy encumbrance
over the line
just one more time
to glory?

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1946, 1944, and 1947 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

The root of the matter

A tree covered with burls in Central Park gives rise to a discussion of rebirth, a friend's pregnancy cast business, and the business of making your mark. There are great photos and a full treatment of today's poem at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Burlwork

Bubbled and burled
like a curdled mama's
grim execration,
still this is only mirage --
the deep cut blinders
of hurt we apply from youth
to shield us from quite growing up:
Why not thick humps
plastered over with bark;
why not a great clump
impossible to excise
without harming the root?
These are signifiers
of making-your-mark.
If we deny them once,
they may vanish like the oasis
at dawn, but if they go, so goes all
that might have sustained us.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1933, 1932, 1929 and 1927 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info