Last night as I was walking in the Staten Island Ferry on Whitehall Street I noticed lines from the poem Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay on the wall of the terminal.

Strangely OTBKB verse responder, Leon Freilich was also in terminal last night. We didn’t run into each other but he did send me this note in response to my post about Art By The Ferry.

I passed the Staten Island Ferry terminal in lower Manhattan last night and noticed the first line of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s memorable–what else?–“Recuerdo” written in letters about three feet high along the eastern windows of the building. But when I walked to the other side, I couldn’t find the second line, which refers to the S.I. ferry.

Does anyone know where that is?

Quite a coincidence. I didn’t go inside the building. My wife Rose and I were taking a fascinating Appalachian Mountain Club walking tour of lower Manhattan. Highlights:

The Wall St. heliport. A hidden flowered plaza on West St. Three or four sets of what look like concrete tiles in Bowling Green park that play musical notes (as in “Big”). An arched metal stairway outside Battery Park City that mirrors the contour of the Statue of Liberty. The Ritz-Carlton’s 14th floor penthouse bar with its view of the harbor. A hidden memorial pool dedicated to NYC policemen who died with donuts in their hand–I mean, in the line of duty. All the new cafes along the BPC

By the way you might want to mention the annual Smith Street Festival, which begins soon, rain or shine. I’ll be Food-Coop recruiting, along with two others, from 10:15 to noon. Lots of clothing buys from Central America; and of course a huge selection of luncheries.

And here is the lovely poem. Part of it is on the wall of the ferry terminal. Somewhere.

RECUERDO
We were very tired, we were very merry–
We had gone back and forth all night upon the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable–
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on the hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.
We were very tired, we were very merry–
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and the pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.