low winter sun
shines upon the city
while residents
walk shadow-dimmed streets
and fluffy clouds grow angry.
Winter Sunlight [Tanka]
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Tag Archives: Light
BOOK: “Night Lights” by Molnár József & Péter Szilas
Night lights by Jozsef MolnarMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher – Atlantisz
Budapest was a city on the cutting edge in the 19th century. This fact is often lost to people who today see it as a city that’s doing okay getting to its feet in the wake of the Cold War, but it’s worth noting that it was a major world capital before that. This is exemplified by the fact that Budapest had the first subway train (Line No. 1., opened in May of 1896.) It’s also seen in the subject of this book, the development of streetlights and lighting of public spaces.
This pamphlet / book of 56 pages is put out by Budapest’s City Hall and includes a great many color photos of important structures, historic and modern, from around the city (all taken at night to display said lighting.) The text covers the history of Budapest’s public lighting from a 1777 decree by Maria Theresa (ruler of the Hapsburg monarchy, 1740-1780) that set the stage for the first street lighting to the post-World War II floodlighting of major sights (e.g. Parliament and the Vajdahunyad Palace.) So, the book covers the period from gaslighting (and oil lighting) through the modern electrical grid, as well as the transition between.
I’d recommend this little book for those interested in the development of cities. It’s fascinating considering what the world was like in the absence of infrastructure that we now take for granted.
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Mountain Blue [Haiku]
mountain skies:
fade to a blue so deep
it chills the bones.
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Chinese Painting [Tanka]
sunlight washes out
the distant mountains;
they look like
an old Chinese painting --
ink faded with age.
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Into the Darkness [Lyric]
Shadow-striped --
Juxtaposing day with night,
And wrong with right,
And never with always --
Down the long striped
Hallway...
Until it ends in darkness.
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The Temple That Never Closes [Haiku]
the streets are dark --
even streetlamps rest -- but
light spills from the temple.
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Martian Mindscape [Free Verse]
The light of day's end
brings out the sandy
grit of the arid
landscape.
The light of day's end
matches & compounds
the color of the
desiccated vegetation.
The light of day's end
turns the world
into someplace new --
somewhere I've never
been before.
My body knows this is
nothing like Mars;
my mind does not.
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Winter Stripe [Haiku]
low Winter sun
stripes the forest floor
with long shadows.
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Palace Pavilion [Haiku]
late afternoon sun
penetrates the pavilion —-
causing napper’s turn.
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Garden Lanterns [Haiku]
legs in leaf litter,
garden lanterns catch light
that pierces bare woods.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 