Stairs have been so widely written about that I won’t
venture to go there. Using the metaphor of the staircase for life’s journey,
the spiritual path or even about education has been over-used. But, the blue at
night of this particular stairway…which no longer goes anywhere…reminded me of
a poem that I do love. (much abbreviated here)
The Blue
Stairs
by Barbara Guest
There is no fear
in taking the first step
or the second or the third
In fact the top can be reached
without disaster
precocious
The code consists in noticing
the particular shade of the staircase
occasionally giving way to the emotions
It has been chosen discriminately
* * * *
It has discovered
in the creak of a footstep
the humility of sound
Hi Duff, I have a "thing" for stairs apart from symbolism - can't explain why - the more ordinary, the better. A few years ago, I photographed a long flight of cement stairs in San Fran that had an aerosol can half way up. In the photo, the can looks like a small vase of roses (or in my imagination, it does). It's such an ordinary photo, but one of my favorites. The stair poem goes much deeper than I have imagined, and I like it, too.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see your photo...but, even without it, I can certainly imagine the long stairs....we do have a lot of them. But, most importantly what your imagination brings to the scene. I often feel that few see what I saw in the photo. And, you know what? That is ok. We all bring ourselves to it.
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