Who's ready to reinvent the wheel?

For the past 17 years, my preferred mode of transportation is walking, although I definitely consider myself more Peripatetic than pedestrian.  Still, I remain a proponent for bicycles.  As I have said before, bicycles have to be one of the greatest inventions of human civilization.  What is more ingenious than inventing a means which allow people to run while sitting down?  Not to mention that bicycles may be the most efficient means of transportation on the ground.  

Still, there remain some complications with bike commuting and traffic laws.  Perhaps one can blame this on the fact that traffic laws were devised with little more than automobiles in mind.  Still,one of the most dangerous instances is watching bicyclist racing through red lights and completely disregarding stop signs.  

I am reasonably sympathetic with this.  After all, it must be extremely annoying to have expended the energy to achieve a breezy cruising speed, only to have that energy lost through abrasion, heat and that odd moan that the brake pads make on the bicycle's wheel rims.  Then after coming to a complete stop, the light turns green again, and the bicyclist has to laboriously crank the pedals to regain that cruising speed.  

Perhaps I can offer a solution - someone needs to reinvent the wheel.  

Instead of simply dissipating that energy through the brakes, why not devise a wheel that slows the bicycle by capturing the energy.  Then when the bicycle has slowed, or comes to a complete rest, that energy can be slowly released again to regain that cool cruising speed?  

Admittedly, I am not the most mechanically inclined person.  But I was considering some options.  Of course many electric cars do this with electric motors.  But this would probably be too heavy for a bicycle.  

The most practical solution would be the use of some type of light weight elastic material.  Through the braking, they would stretch and store the energy.  Then when needed, the stretched elastic could unravel and the energy released would propel the bike to effortlessly regain that carefree cruising speed.  

Of course even a contraption such as this would add weight to the bicycles, but I am not talking about using this on bicycles for the Tour de France.  I am thinking of simple cruisers that people would use for commuting and recreation.  

In time though, I am eagerly anticipating the inevitable day when an entire avenue in Manhattan is closed for only bicycle and pedestrian traffic.  And I truly believe that day is quickly approaching.  

Another Subway Poem

As I am in a transition right now, I don't have the opportunity to sit and compose any serious pieces.  It is typical for me to overextend myself beyond my resources.  Still my marketing venture is going well, people are enjoying my books and I have time to compose some light verse while riding in the subway.

For My Friend, Perseverance

They thought they could trap her like a bird,
slam shut the window they used to lure her
then batter her to the deck, stand on her neck
and pluck every single feather from her.

But she bounced around like a bullet,
riddled their lies till they were heaped in piles
then hovered like a buzzing hummingbird
before shooting through the roof.

Potted Plants

A thought
of a title
for a book
of poems:

Potted Plants

tiny islands
of life
with obscene flowers,
quilled cacti
and glowing peppers
filled with fire.

7/12/13
Another Subway Poem

John Ashbery's poetry, a reflection

Reading John Ashbery's poetry is like chasing a fox through a forest.
I can see the delicate and nimble flash darting and dashing through the lush vegetation and majestic stands, but I can never catch it.  If I remain intensely attentive, I can follow it through the turns, till suddenly at the end of the last line, the fox abruptly vanishes.  Then lifting my eyes from the page, I find myself in a completely different place.

A Circuit of the Sun

Through the past year, I have made the most monumental achievement of my life.
I have been communicating with the public through my literature.
Sitting in the parks of New York City nearly every day,
even in the snow and subfreezing temperatures,
I have cordially greeted the throngs of people passing.
Countless times, I have asked the blur of traffic,
“Would you like to hear some poetry?”
and on some rare occasions,
a person will step out
of the bustling crowd
and say,
“Yes.”


Garrett Buhl Robinson
Brooklyn

The Future of Libraries and the Libraries of the Future

The public library system in the United States is one of the greatest institutions in the history of humanity.  This public service, which was established to ensure the preservation and access of information for the public, has no comparison.  As society continues to develop into the information age, the services and information that the public library provides will continue to increase in importance and value. 

"Liquidating the library branches ... would be like selling the gold mine to buy picks and shovels."

Through the centuries, books have been invaluable for the storage and dissemination of information.  As we work more exclusively on digital platforms, books are becoming obsolete.  Libraries, however, are not becoming obsolete. 

Library is derived from liber, which means book.  However, to consider literature as books is like considering theater as only a stage.  The stage is simply the platform upon which dramatics are performed.  Ultimately, libraries do not preserve books.  They preserve information.

At the current rate that we are propagating information, and our increased reliance upon this information, we must have places where this information may be preserved and accessed.  Digital information is extremely volatile and easily lost, and as our reliance upon digital information increases, our reliance upon the library system to preserve and archive this information will become more important. 

New York City is perfectly positioned to lead in the transformation of the library system.  In fact, the New York Public Library could become the principal source of research information for the entire human population. Unfortunately, some municipal decisions concerning the public libraries seem to be moving more toward disassembling the system, rather than ensuring that it has the support needed to continue evolving to meet the public’s needs. 

"The New York Public Library could become the principal source of research information for the entire human population"

With the construction of the new Roosevelt Island Tech Center the library will be an invaluable resource for ever elaborating information technologies.  Liquidating the library branches and renovating the Schwartzman Building so that it becomes more of a museum of the library sciences rather than a functioning research facility is like selling the gold mine to buy picks and shovels. 

Instead of liquidating historic library buildings and converting the Schwartzman Building into a museum, the city should take close consideration of how the library system may evolve to continue serving the population as we develop into the information age.

Although there are countless ways through which people interact and communicate, the literary language remains an invaluable means of exchanging information and is second in complexity and consequence only to the genetic code.  The library system must continue to evolve to ensure that the integrity of literary information and communication is preserved.

In addition to living in the information age, we also live in the misinformation age.  Our access to information must be from unbiased sources that provide every available means of verifying the legitimacy of the information.  This access must also be independent from the economic market.  The public library must continue to provide this service. 

With the availability of the information in the library system, universities and the Roosevelt Island Tech Center can begin developing systems for restructuring and organizing the information to improve access through ingenious new means of data architecture and indexing.  This would increase the public’s ability to apply information effectively to the unforeseeable developments of the future. 

"The best-informed public is the most stable, productive and innovative public."

Instead of closing historic library facilities, the city should modify them into education centers that instruct the public in the effective use of new information technology.  This would enable the public to employ these tools for the greatest benefit for themselves and society.  The best-informed public is the most stable, productive and innovative public. 

As the information we generate increases exponentially, we must rely upon the library system for the preservation and archival of this information.  Although it is easy to dismiss the electronic chatter that is incessantly buzzing through our lives, this buzzing is the development of new means of interaction that we are only beginning to understand.  Never before has the entire population of humanity had instant access to one another, and this means of communication is integrating our collective intelligence in ways that are unprecedented.  These developments have profound ramifications for humanity and life on Earth.  We must preserve this information that is recording a nascent era of our species so that it would be available for study. 

Also, the archives of the New York Public Library are already the most accessible of any literary archives in the world.  The new technology that is developing could make these archives even more accessible.  As we record these archives on digital formats, anyone in the world could directly access them.  This would allow the entire human population to converge upon the New York Public Library as a primary resource and point of referral for information on the human species and the universe. 

Not only would this convergence allow the New York Public Library to gain and engage the attention of the  world’s population, it could establish the library system as an invaluable source of information from which people may continue to develop their understanding of one other and us all.  Then, as we continue to develop our understanding of one another, we may decrease the number of conflicts from disagreement. 

Although printed books are becoming a novelty, literary language and the information preserved and transferred through it is not.  We cannot abandon our library system, instead we must ensure that it will evolve to serve our increasing need for information. 

Garrett Buhl Robinson is a poet and novelist.  He lives in Brooklyn.

Infinite Answer

Pausing for a moment, curious,
the simple man watches
others trampling a field
playing rankling
games of elimination
then resumes his furrowing journey
turning the earth
while life rises behind him,
opening in flowers
disrobing their petals
swelling into fruit
sweetly encasing sleeping seeds
dreaming into being, while thinking:
"The answer must be everyone."

Garrett Buhl Robinson
2/20/13