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25th Year of Publication

October 2024

David Alpaugh

Riding the "A"

May Swenson  

 

              I ride
              the "A" train
              and feel
              like a ball-
              bearing in a roller skate.
              I have on a gray
              rain-
              coat. The hollow
              of the car
              is gray.
              My face
              a negative in the slate
              window,
              I sit
              in a lit
              corridor that races
              through a dark
              one. Strok-
              ing steel,
              what a smooth rasp—it feels
              like the newest of knives
              slicing
              along
              a long
              black crusty loaf
              from West 4th to 168th.
              Wheels
              and rails
              in their prime
              collide,
              make love in a glide
              of slickness
              and friction.
              It is an elation
              I wish to pro-
              long.
              The station
              is reached
              too soon.

May Swenson's Riding the "A" was first published in 1963 in her collection To Mix with Time. By then, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald had already made the New York City subway line famous for countless listeners via Billy Strayhorn's song "Take the A Train":

        You must take the A Train
        To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
        If you miss the A Train
        You'll find you've missed the quickest way to Harlem

        Hurry, get on, now, it's coming
        Listen to those rails a-thrumming (All Aboard!)
        Get on the A Train
        Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem

Strayhorn's song was all about how rapidly the A Train could lift you out of the business world of downtown Manhattan and take you to a joyous land of restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues such as the Apollo Theater and The Lennox Lounge where jazz greats like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Dizzy Gillespie performed. The lyric urges you to "hurry," once you hear "those rails a-thrumming"; to get aboard as soon as the train arrives, and its doors open.

Notice that the song doesn't place you inside the train, but on the platform where you are hurrying so as not to miss "the quickest way to Harlem."

Swenson is less interested in getting to Columbus Circle or Sugar Hill, Harlem than she is in the physical and spiritual experience of the ride itself. She takes us inside the subway car, where her short, disjunctive lines capture the spastic, jolting, swaying, rhythmic thrill that I felt when I was riding the A train almost daily a few years before Swenson's poem first appeared. Our poet makes us feel as if we are not so much "going somewhere" as enjoying an exciting amusement park ride on a bumper car or roller coaster.

Our excitement is heightened by the ride feeling a bit scary. There's something almost surreal about the experience. We are jostled like "a ball -bearing in a roller skate." We "sit / in a lit / corridor that races / through a dark one," and we move "like / the newest of knives / slicing / along / a long / black crusty loaf / from West 4th to 186th."

A roller coaster painting with a bear  Description automatically generated

The title of our poem, however, is not Riding the A Train, but Riding the "A."

A regular rider might drop the word "train" to affectionately nickname a favorite mode of transportation. But Swenson drops the word and puts quotation marks around her "A" to signal that another kind of ride is also occurring here.

The poet has set herself a challenge. She will share the excitement and joy that an imaginative ride on a NYC subway train, circa 1963, elicits; but she will also share her delight at playing with that train's letter "A." (It may not be a coincidence that the first letter in the alphabet occurs 39 times in this 39-line poem.)

Word after word in our poet's train of thought features what is arguably the most primal letter in the alphabet. Long A occurs 7 times in her first 15 lines: a, train, skate, gray, rain, gray, slate, races. Swenson, however, is careful to establish, but not make her entitled vowel too conspicuous. Her next 17 lines feature 8 words (what, dark, rasp, along, a, black, loaf, rails)that sport a short "a" which suspends the rhyming and lowers the temperature on the letter's noticeability.

Swenson has fun playing with the alphabet's remaining four vowels; boldly featuring "i" rhymes, both long and short (sit / lit; collide / glide; slickness / friction); including one long "e" rhyme (steel / feels); a slant rhyme off  "o" (stroke / dark); and just one long and one short "u" in her poem (through / crusty) to make sure that vowel is not kicked off her train.

There is a serious joke embedded in this endeavor. Trains run on rails that, like parallel lines, never meet.  Yet Swenson's poem is an attempt to bring her A train and letter "a" together.

Our poem reaches a climax with erotic overtones, as " wheels / and rails / in their prime / collide / make love in a glide / of slickness and friction" is followed by an "a" word that perfectly describes the joy our poet's multi-layered ride delivers:

                It is an elation

The accent in elation falls firmly on the "a." It's as if the word has chosen that vowel (rather than its "e" or "i" or "o") to best express the "joyfulness or exaltation of spirit" that dictionaries tell us the word denotes. Elation not only describes our experience riding a train that feels like a roller coaster; it also captures our delight as Swenson almost completes her playful ride on the letter "a." To quote the final line of last month's favorite poem, "Crystal Moment," both train and vowel are "running beautiful together."

A cross between two railroad tracks  Description automatically generated

But our poem is not yet over. When I rode the roller coaster as a child at Bertram's Island in New Jersey, I always felt let down when the train raced back into the station and my car stopped with a disconcerting jolt.

The thrill of riding Swenson's train, riding her ride, riding her "a," her vowels, her love, are all metaphors for riding life itself.

                                          It is an elation
                                          I wish to pro-
                                          long.

We cannot get too much of this vibrant imaginative journey we call life. We are sad that her and our elation is over, as,

                                          The station
                                          is reached
                                          too soon.

Swenson's abrupt ending reminds us that all trains stop, all voices go silent. The upward lilt of the "a" in "elation" slips off our tongues, ending too soon. The spondaic, thumping emphasis on both syllables of STA-TION brings everything to a standstill. "Station" has the final say— and stay—on this exhilarating ride on Swenson's "A."

 

A group of people walking on a platform  Description automatically generated

 And another hundred people just got off of the train. 
 —Stephen Sondheim—

 

 

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David Alpaugh 's newest collection of poetry is Seeing the There There  (Word Galaxy Press, 2023). Alpaugh's visual poems have been appearing monthly in Scene4 since February 2019. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has been a finalist for Poet Laureate of California. For more of his poetry, plays, and articles , check the Archives.
 

©2024 David Alpaugh
©2024 Publication Scene4 Magazine

 

 

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