After a long career in market research, Citi Bike founding member Art (short for Arthur) is happily retired. Now he gets to devote his time to the things he’s really passionate about- poetry and pedaling around the city.
Not one to be idle, Art started teaching a course in Oral Interpretation of Poetry! He bike commutes to his school four times a week and when he’s not teaching, he and his wife Shelly love Citi Biking around the Upper West Side.
A few weeks ago Art sent us this poem and we want to share what he wrote with you. It looks like he’s found a way to combine his two passions!
MAIDEN VOYAGE ON A CITI BIKE
By Art Spar
My body is quivering
Skin and bones shivering
Lungs hyperventilating
Mind anticipating
Tension level shrill
Events about to spill
It’s all about the thrill
Caressing the bike key
Touching it reassuringly
Striding to 72nd Street
Where my chariot and I shall meet
Shake off the morning chill
This is not a drill
Consummate the thrill
Nightmares last until
Fear is told to chill
And I embrace the thrill
So will this be for good
A blur of motion whence I stood
A fluid body exercised
Lungs and heart energized
The vast Hudson sliding by
Ancient piers rotting where they lie
New York waking from its sleep
Workers with promises to keep
Seagulls screaming ferries barging
Sated garbage trucks discharging
I am a capsule gliding through the shadows
Of Carnival and Intrepid as they pose
For tourists questing something new
Women and men running in lycra
Revealing all they yearn for
Pick-up hoops where young men practice
Who they are becoming
Lovers on a bench
Closing a veil of intimacy before watching eyes
And the Freedom Tower grows larger
Commanding the heavens
I marvel at all this still
Waiting for the time until
I return to relive the thrill