Poetic City: Mural on Second Avenue

Lilian Moore celebrates the city in a 2005 collection of poems, Mural on Second Avenue and Other City Poems. In contrast to the previous poetry collection I highlighted, Moore's short poems stay away from the more gritty aspects of the city. Fortunately, that doesn't make them less interesting. I've never considered myself an expert on poetry and have always felt a little unqualified to judge it but Moore received the Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children as well as many positive critical reviews of her work.

The subject matter in this collection ranges from the expected topics of seasons and bridges to the slightly amusing,"How to Go Around a Corner" and department store windows. The poems are all an easy length and mostly written in free verse. One of my favorites was "Forsythia Bush" because it reminded me of my own delight on discovering the beautiful forsythia during my first New York spring ten years ago.

There is nothing
quite
like the sudden
light

of
forsythia
that
one morning
without warning

explodes
into yellow
and
startles the street
into spring.

Each poem is accompanied by a lovely painted illustration by Roma Karas. The illustrations are clearly based on NYC (as is so often the case), but the poems are not city-specific.

Want More?
Read about Lilian Moore at The Poetry Foundation.
Visit Roma Karas' website.
Other Poetry Books you might like: Other poetry books you might like: A City Is, Sky Scrape/City Scape, City I Love, City Poems.