The Demise Of Hotel Upson

Free verse

Thick cloudy sky filled with tears___woe

Crying at the swiftly passing era

No more old generation__new day

The passage into a modern time

 

A time all its own with difference

Whole set of problems separates it

From times that have gone by but yet__same

History tends to repeat itself

 

The demise of Hotel Upson brought thought

A time of reflection to many

To some joy that ugly eye sore__gone

Others landmark history removed

 

Today in America there is

A church or more on every street

Evil, lawlessness, drugs on the beats

Gangs, violence, road rage and much more

 

It seems times like when the Hotel raised

Back in Nineteen-twenty-eight are gone

A simple time when families, friends

Was an important part of the plan

 

That hotel was built solid and strong

Built to withstand the test of hard times

Who would have thought its hey-day would end

With a track-hoe beating its walls down

 

Its architecture was a simple

Design Georgian Revivial Style of

Red brick trimmed in limestone best in day

Had a ballroom, elevators, air

 

No matter it is no longer there

Gone forever to C&D landfill

Not even sold for reuse the parts

That made it the best in its day__gone

 

 

Author's Note

Hotel was the best in its day ....It had a ballroom, dining,,elevator, air...It was a major place to stop on the way to Florida for Northerners...Then the Interstate came through diverted the traffic...It had gone down hill ever since...

Reviews

[Charles]

You say this is free verse (and for the most part it is - don't need to tell most contemporary readers that)... late in the poem, though, there are parts that deviate from classical free verse (like stanza 7) - nothing wrong with doing that (just an observation). Interesting use of ___ to connect the closing words of some lines to the remainder of the line. I'll have to study that a bit to see how I like it - maybe you have other poems that use the technique. The single theme is strong and flows nicely stanza to stanza. Good work.

[just rose.]

I always mourn old architecture when it's gone and think of the stories it could tell. I like when found pieces from it are reused, but that is not the case here, and so it's even more sad. You take us back in time to when the dreams of men included grandeur and design. And it's sad that often it's not like that anymore.