New Haven Bus Stop — Clock Counting

AUTHOR NARRATION

Hear the poem.

Read by the author in the original English.

New Haven Bus StopEnglish narration

Portrait of the To Be Bussed

Beside an ordinary red brick wall, two people smoke on the left, an older woman in a longer skirt wears a Spring Fling Queen jacket, and two men sit on the curb.

GEOGRAPHY OF THE POEM

Finding the corner.

The poem takes place at the former CTtransit stop at 812 Chapel Street, at the corner of Chapel and Orange Streets.

THE HISTORICAL RECORD

Contemporary reports document a busy bus stop on Chapel near Orange, beside Artspace’s outdoor public-art site known as The Lot. The route, address, bus shelter, and neighboring brick wall all converge here.

AN OPENING IMAGE

The red brick wall.

This is the poem’s red brick wall, part of the nineteenth-century building beside the bus stop. The building was demolished in August 2015, and the corner has since been completely transformed.

Historic view of 808–810 Chapel Street and the neighboring bus shelter before demolition. — 01
**Then — the former building**
The corner before August 2015, when the old brick building and the bus shelter stood side by side.

The completed mixed-use building now standing at 808 Chapel Street. — 02
**Now — The Archive**
The six-story mixed-use building completed at 808 Chapel Street in 2024.

Photographs and information:Yale New Haven Building Archive and Kenneth Boroson Architects.

YALE ARCHITECTURE

Gargoyles of another class and form.

The bus stop in this poem was on or near Yale’s campus. Yale is one of the most prestigious universities in the United States, an Ivy League institution in the Northeast, and its campus is especially known for its historic Collegiate Gothic architecture. Below are photographs of some of Yale’s Collegiate Gothic buildings.

A second view of Yale's Gothic architecture. — 01
**Branford and Saybrook Colleges**
The Gothic Memorial Quadrangle complex and Harkness Tower.

The Gothic Revival facade of Sterling Memorial Library at Yale. — 02
**Sterling Memorial Library**
Yale’s Gothic Revival library, rich with carved architectural detail.

Photography by Michael Marsland, courtesy of the Yale Visitor Center.

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New HavenBus Stop