Vincent Katz

Still On The Corner

I’m still on the corner
We’re turning 7th Ave
The car is playing dance music
At very low volume at 8:31 am

Now at Varick & Houston
My heart feels all the times
A glance toward JJ Walker
And sitting there on a bench

Now in the tunnel, now out,
In America now Love Always Wins
Says the painted mural
In blessed industrial sprawl

Far below now, miniature cars,
Highways, cylindrical gas tanks
Leveling of clouds, read, movie
Leaving and always flying

A Stroke Across Space

A stroke across space
Destroying distance
Those people spent time
Weighed on heads behind
Music lifted in halls
Opera shared recalled
And today a dull sun
Brightening is all again
Where love patters,
Somehow remains, fast
Against shutters flies
Wayward, clouds the only
Action, mind still finds
Where to swim in sky

Faces & Windows

I want to be alone
In this trance of lines

I don’t want to reveal
Too much of myself

I’m alone among
These images

It's A Great Day

My favorite hill in the darkening
Two girls jumping in lamplight
Outside a sense of royalty

Here’s another field
Soccer goals set up
On leaf-strewn field

It’s a great day today
Game day and the masses
Are descending

In front of the Elmwood
All is crisp and cool
Nothing to do all day long

Vincent Katz has lived in Manhattan for much of his life, where he often writes poems on the streets and avenues. He is the author of the poetry collections Broadway for Paul, Southness, and Swimming Home, among others, as well as the book of translations The Complete Elegies of Sextus Propertius.