EVERYONE IS A CREATOR.

NO STRANGER THAN STRANGERS.

These two humans never met before that day. 
It didn't matter.

ON AND OFF SWITCH.

It would be really great if there was an on-and-off switch to a city that I could access right in front of me, just like the on-and-off switch to the lights in my room or like the knob of the reading light on my bed post. New York is known as the city that never sleeps, but if we’re gonna compare it to a human anyway, it’s important to note that human beings can’t live or function without sleep. In fact, anyone who doesn’t sleep is at risk of dying of exhaustion.  Maybe that’s why there’s not a lot of nature around here --- maybe parts of the city just died of exhaustion. If there was an off switch I think just in the 5 minutes of being off, the world would save something like 100 billion katrillion killowatts of energy which could then be used to power other stuff – like hospital rooms in Mali. Also, if there was an off switch then maybe the stars would shine again and people could make wishes on shooting ones. 

Things I Didn’t Know I Love by Nazim Hikmet

It's 1962, March 28 ^th, I'm sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train.

Night is falling. I never knew I liked the night.

Descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain.

I don't like comparing nightfall to a tired bird.

I didn't know I loved the earth.

Can someone who hasn't worked the earth love it?

I've never worked the earth - it must be my only Platonic love.

And here I've loved rivers all this time…

I know you can't wash in the same river even once

I know the river will bring new lights you'll never see….

I know all this has been said a thousand times before and will be said after me.

I didn't know I loved the sky.

Cloudy or clear.

The blue vault Andrei studied on his back at Borodino -

in prison I translated both volumes of War and Peace into Turkish…

I didn't know I loved trees.

Bare beaches near Moscow in Peredelkino they come upon me in winter noble and modest.

Beaches are Russian the way poplars are Turkish,

"the poplars of Izmir losing their leaves. . .

lover like a young tree. . .

I blow stately mansions sky-high."

I never knew I loved roads - even the asphalt kind.

Ramazan night in Istanbul holding his grandfather's hand.
His grandfather has on a fez and is wearing the fur coat with a sable collar over his robe, and there's a lantern in the servant's hand, and I can't contain myself for joy.

Flowers come to mind for some reason poppies, cactuses, jonquils…

in the jonquil garden in Kadikoy Istanbul I kissed Marika, fresh almonds on her breath.

I was seventeen.

My heart on a swing touched the sky.

I didn't know I loved flowers,

Friends sent me three red carnations in prison

I just remembered the stars - I love them too,

whether I'm floored watching them from below

or whether I'm flying at their side

I have some questions for the cosmonauts:

Were the stars much bigger? Did they look like huge jewels on black velvet

or apricots on orange? Did you feel proud to get closer to the stars?

I saw color photos of the cosmos in Ogonek magazine…

Now don't be upset comrades but nonfigurative shall we say or abstract,

well some of them looked just like such paintings

which is to say they were terribly figurative and concrete.

My heart was in my mouth looking at them –

they are our endless desire to grasp things.

Snow flashes in front of my eyes,

both heavy wet steady snow and the dry whirling kind.

I didn't know I liked snow

I never knew I loved the sun - even when setting cherry-red as now in Istanbul too,

it sometimes sets in postcard colors, but you aren't about to paint it that way,

I didn't know I loved clouds -whether I'm under or up above them, whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts… I like it.

I didn't know I liked rain - whether it falls like a fine net or splatters against the glass my,

heart leaves me tangled up in a net or trapped inside a drop,

and takes off for uncharted countries I didn't know I loved.

Rain.

But why did I suddenly discover all these passions sitting

by the window on the Prague-Berlin train? Is it because I'm half dead from thinking about someone back in Moscow her hair straw-blond eyelashes blue?

The train plunges on through the pitch-black night.

I never knew I liked the night pitch-black.

I DIDN’T KNOW I LOVED SO MANY THINGS!

And I had to wait until sixty to find it out sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train watching the world disappear as if on a journey of no return.