“Die Trepp’ hinunter geschwungen
Komm’ ich in vollem Lauf,
Die Trepp’ empor gesprungen
Kommt er und fängt mich auf:
Und wo die Treppe so dunkel ist,
Haben wir vielmal uns geküßt,
Und Niemand hat’s gesehen.”
(E.F. Gruppe, no title)
Amay-Ampsin (B)
Die weinende Treppe
A stairwell to sing in
“Now, he sang in stairwells: great acoustics!
Arias, pop songs, show tunes…Nobody
ever saw him. He was always
A flight below, or above, But his voice
throbbed through the entire
stair vestibule of a building—
stirring, thick, authentic.
Closing your eyes, you could easily
imagine yourself at Carnegie Hall.”
(M. Reif in The Stairwell Crooner)
Eindhoven (NL)
A way to the stars
I’m renovating
“I thought of killing myself because I am only a bricklayer
and you a woman who loves the man who runs a drug store.
I don’t care like I used to; I lay bricks straighter than I
used to and I sing slower handling the trowel afternoons.
When the sun is in my eyes and the ladders are shaky and the
mortar boards go wrong, I think of you.”
(C. Sandburg in Bricklayer love)
Liège (B)