Lyrical Thursdays: Detroit

Today I am heading to one of my favorite places: Detroit!  I live about 45 minutes from Detroit, and love going there and experiencing all that this great city has to offer.  Unfortunately most of the world hears only about the bad things, but to me and many who live in Southeast Michigan, the good far outweighs the bad. There's Comerica Park & the Tigers, Ford Field & the Lions, Joe Louis Arena & the Red Wings; there's the Eastern Market with fresh, locally grown produce; there are all of the delicious restaurants (Slow's, Russell St. Deli, and so many more); there's Greek Town & Mexican Town, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Heidelberg Project, the Zoo, and so much more (including everything the suburbs have to offer).

Detroit waterfront

Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers

Eastern Market, Russell St. Deli & the Heidelberg Project

Jack White, a native of Detroit, has often been quoted as saying negative things about the Motor City.  In response to this, he wrote a poem that was published in the Detroit Free Press expressing, in his words, "my feelings about the city itself, and how strong I believe it to be." (For more on the background of the poem, click here.)  It's a bit of a long poem, so I won't say any more about Detroit myself (for now...), but will let his words paint a picture for you.

'Courageous Dream's Concern,' 

by Jack White

I have driven slow,
three miles an hour or so,
through Highland Park, Heidelberg, and the
Cass Corridor.
I've hopped on the Michigan,
and transferred to the Woodward,
and heard the good word blaring from an
a.m. radio.
I love the worn-through tracks of trolley
trains breaking through their
concrete vaults,
As I ride the Fort Street or the Baker,
just making my way home.

I sneak through an iron gate, and fish
rock bass out of the strait,
watching the mail boat with
its tugboat gait,
hauling words I'll never know.
The water letter carrier,
bringing prose to lonely sailors,
treading the big lakes with their trailers,
floats in blue green chopping waters,
above long-lost sunken failures,
awaiting exhumation iron whalers,
holding gold we'll never know.

I've slid on Belle Isle,
and rowed inside of it for miles.
Seeing white deer running alongside
While I glide, in a canoe.
I've walked down Caniff holding a glass
Atlas root beer bottle in my hands
And I've entered closets of coney islands
early in the morning too.
I've taken malt from Stroh's and Sanders,
felt the black powder of abandoned
embers,
And smelled the sawdust from wood cut
to rehabilitate the fallen edifice.
I've walked to the rhythm of mariachis,
down junctions and back alleys,
Breathing fresh-baked fumes of culture
nurtured of the Latin and the
Middle East.
I've fallen down on public ice,
and skated in my own delight,
and slid again on metal crutches
into trafficked avenues.

Three motors moved us forward,
Leaving smaller engines to wither,
the aluminum, and torpedo,
Monuments to unclaimed dreaming.
Foundry's piston tempest captured,
Forward pushing workers raptured,
Frescoed families strife fractured,
Encased by factory's glass ceiling.

Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking,
Holding off the coward-armies weakling,
Always rising from the ashes
not returning to the earth.

I so love your heart that burns
That in your people's body yearns
To perpetuate,
and permeate,
the lonely dream that does encapsulate,
Your spirit, that God insulates,
With courageous dream's concern.