City trip tip
We're looking intently at the city in this issue of your weekly poetry shot
Is that one?
Oh, I see one up there!
We scan, we wait, we score. Then, one more.
No. That is not a real
Invader.
One of my favourite travel tips for Paris is not a museum, a restaurant or a carousel. It’s an app. A very special one. You get the most out of it in Paris, but actually, you can use it in many other places in the world. It’s not an app with tips, or recommendations and review, or discount vouchers. It’s an app that makes you look intently at the details of the city, specifically the walls and the street art created on them. It works very well with kids, who find the game fun. The app is created by street artist Invader, who creates mosaics in the style of the pixelated computer games of a few decades back, such as Pacman and, yes, Space Invaders. With the app, called Flash Invaders, you scan his artwork (or one of the many works that is similar) and score points if it’s an authentic Invader piece of art. At the end of last year, there was an exhibition of his work celebrating the installation of his 4000th piece. And he’s not done yet. As I wrote in an earlier issue, we got to know him while visiting Newcastle and Gateshead in the UK, so he’s really not just in Paris.
What is your favourite city trip tip? And for which city?
Poetics in life
It has been a hard week for the world. And it might even get harder. We should not fall into the trap of taking sides, of the rhetoric of good and evil, of an eye-for-an-eye. Please, let’s always find our way back to roads to peace. I hope this inspires you.
You can now support your inbox poetry magazine by taking a paid subscription. If you do, you have a chance to win digital art, but also get some wonderful perks. Like helping me decide which poets to feature here. And a free ebook. Push this button now:
Poetry elsewhere
If you look at what’s around you with intent, what do you see? I love how
shares his world in his poems through rich and imaginative imagery. You don’t need an app to look intently. Maybe just a 30-year old line from a diary. Enjoy reading The Day Has Come:
What do you see when you look intently around you? We might stand on the exact same spot, yet see different things. Notice different things. Looking with a different mindset, a different personality, a different reference framework is something we really need to do more often. We need to keep making that effort to build a bridge over our differences and disagreements to find ways to connect. To do so, we need to keep finding unexpected perspectives. That is why I love the work of aether so much. It always gives me a different perspective. Enjoy Phi, a collaboration of aether and Nonconceptualism.
How is your imagination? Do you imagine making beautiful things? Delicious things? I do, sometimes. Now, imagine making delicious, maybe even sexy, ice cream. Will the dream be just a dream, or… enjoy this lovely poem Ice cream dreams by Patricia Finney of
Will have to try out the app next time I’m traveling!