An Expedition for Thursday Doors

walking walking
looking for doors looking
for ways to connect
one with another–
walking and looking
for the one door that becomes the center,
the pivot that marks where I turn around

walking walking
should I retrace my path?
or sit for awhile
and consider how
I came to be here,
thinking of all the doors I haven’t seen–
they are not lost—just waiting to be found

I photographed this mansion on Riverside Drive awhile ago, but my front views were not very good, so I made a special trip back to photograph the front again.

You can’t get close to the front, but the side, on West 89th Street, is very accessible–you can even drive into the doorway.

Built by Isaac Rice, an attorney and investor, in the early 1900s, in 1907 it was sold to cigarette manufacturer Solomon Schinasi, and then to a Yeshiva in 1954. There was a huge battle in 1980 over whether it should be landmarked or sold to a developer who would have knocked it down and built another highrise–Landmarks won out, and it remains a cash-strapped school.

My poem, for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday theme expedition, provided by Donna Matthews, is a duodora. You can read about the form here.

Read more about the Rice Mansion here and here.

And see more Thursday Doors here. Although Dan is on vacation this week, there are lots of previous posts to peruse.