[Marion Shore]

Streetlight

Outside the circle of the globe streetlight
beside a corner on the thousandth street,
a shade approaches, always out of sight—
late for appointment at the dim retreat
in the brownstone storefront halfway down the block
where pale night shadows come sometimes to meet.

At last inside the doorway—the loud knock
pounding unanswered on the wooden door,
the rattle of the unrelenting lock,
the unread papers scattered on the floor—
there, posted on the glass in black and white,
the final notice: Nothing Is In Store.

Now hear the silence of the thousandth night
outside the circle of the globe streetlight.


I was struck by this poem’s dreamlike ambience, its evocative images and eerie music – which reminded me a bit of Poe, but of no one so much as Walter de la Mare.

The sense of the mysterious presence, the brownstone storefront, the loud knocking, the unread papers, the final notice with its ominous double meaning. "The corner on the thousandth street," "the silence of the thousandth night." What does it mean? And why a globe streetlight, rather than a regular one?

I don't know. All I know is I find the poem, with its cryptic imagery, its dreamlike atmosphere, its sense of an unseen yet ominous presence, both haunting and compelling. And cinematic. (In fact, I'd be willing to bet the poet is a David Lynch fan!)