critical archi-poetry found in the middle
of Ed Roberson's To See the Earth Before the End of the World:
“A dome is the support
of the bridge-in-all-directions,
anywhere the weathervane
seated on it points.
The arch of each foot
stands on half the dome of human balance,
the start point of the arc made step our walking is,
a colonnade of landing, uplift, then falling
forward.
The course the great domes of this program take
to bridge over mortality they think
is to shape time and history,
or their stomp of progress …arcing up andfallingdown,
the great capitols
each atop the other’s emptied footprint.
Geometries have narrative,
story, program the building poses
in its fit to the senses,
the spatial drama of its lines
as built idea…
… is upside down made begging
bowl for wandering oceans…
… upside down
the foot’s upturned arches cupped into a ship’s
hold carrying each step’s ground
gained by trampling another’s
…an edge the earth shouldn’t have
for falling off itself…”
—————————————
The insides
of a space, the human
in a volume,
something
internal like the room
of the Pantheon —
…
as it is poled through time —
also pulls through Grand Central
…
in slant hour
of light stroke the floor.
The traveler…
—————————————
...travel
is a transitional structure
its doors in different places.
… the exit to old Penn Station
long gone
A building travels
through time
… to the original
…
idea of a door
As an entrance to
the city we could have picked up
our Virgil”
Critical archi-poetry excerpts from Ed Roberson's "Architectural Drawing", "Architectural Program" and "Travel Structure", found in the middle of To See the Earth Before he End of the World (2010) p75-78. Find more on the Chicago poet Ed Roberson and his thoughts on archi-poetry here, and here > where he notably proclaims "the audacity / to have survived. as the architectonic of a city."
of Ed Roberson's To See the Earth Before the End of the World:
“A dome is the support
of the bridge-in-all-directions,
anywhere the weathervane
seated on it points.
The arch of each foot
stands on half the dome of human balance,
the start point of the arc made step our walking is,
a colonnade of landing, uplift, then falling
forward.
The course the great domes of this program take
to bridge over mortality they think
is to shape time and history,
or their stomp of progress …arcing up andfallingdown,
the great capitols
each atop the other’s emptied footprint.
Geometries have narrative,
story, program the building poses
in its fit to the senses,
the spatial drama of its lines
as built idea…
… is upside down made begging
bowl for wandering oceans…
… upside down
the foot’s upturned arches cupped into a ship’s
hold carrying each step’s ground
gained by trampling another’s
…an edge the earth shouldn’t have
for falling off itself…”
—————————————
The insides
of a space, the human
in a volume,
something
internal like the room
of the Pantheon —
…
as it is poled through time —
also pulls through Grand Central
…
in slant hour
of light stroke the floor.
The traveler…
—————————————
...travel
is a transitional structure
its doors in different places.
… the exit to old Penn Station
long gone
A building travels
through time
… to the original
…
idea of a door
As an entrance to
the city we could have picked up
our Virgil”
Critical archi-poetry excerpts from Ed Roberson's "Architectural Drawing", "Architectural Program" and "Travel Structure", found in the middle of To See the Earth Before he End of the World (2010) p75-78. Find more on the Chicago poet Ed Roberson and his thoughts on archi-poetry here, and here > where he notably proclaims "the audacity / to have survived. as the architectonic of a city."
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