The postcard comes to us from Edinburgh by way of Brittany: Anna Dickie took the photo, and Lucy Kempton added the words. It’s a bit of spillover from a collaboration for qarrtsiluni, which they discussed in some detail there. The photo depicts the Playfair Steps in Edinburgh, which lead up to the Old Town, with a view over the city. Lucy told us:
There’s a Youth Hostel nearby, and I remembered a story my nephew told of when he was in Ediburgh, and a girl he got friendly with urged him to come up on the roof of the hostel where they were staying (I don’t know if it was the Playfair one), where, she said, the lights of the city at night were very beautiful. He declined, but saw her the next night with another boy, and heard afterwards she had gone up there and fallen to her death. This was in my mind as I wrote the poem.
I used Picasa’s text function, aiming at a kind of streetlight yellow, and grading the size of the font to match the perspective of the steps.
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8 comments in “the playfair steps”
March 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Wonderful image and words. The shocking and sad tale immediately changed my initial view to something much darker.
March 5th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
The story Lucy told reminded me a little bit of Hoffmann’s The Sandman.
March 8th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Congratulations, Lucy and Anna. Intriguing lines. I love the contrast of the bright font with the dark photograph.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
This is a good piece, but I’m afraid that the perspective of the photo places the speaker at the bottom, not the top, thus imploring people to ‘come up’ seems backward. The words would have fit an image shot down a flight of stairs better.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Enchanting and intoxicating. Starting here, I would have gone up with her.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I love how this elaborates on the already extensive collaboration over at qarrtsiluni. Thanks for your rich meeting of minds!
March 13th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Thank you all, Lucy deserves the praise for a lovely poe. Nibble I think the narrator could be with somehow at the foot of the steps encouraging them to come up with her – that’s how I took it anyway. But it’s always good to get another viewpoint.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Doh, “poem”. My keyboard doesn’t keep up with me.
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