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Sing O Muse

May 6, 2020
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This was a good idea, a tribute to four deserving women with lovely singing voices who also happened to inspire, and thus be Muses. The execution isn’t so hot, but that’s what I get for using the Unforgiving Pen for this one.

Mama Cass Elliot was compared by Graham Nash to Gertrude Stein, that patron of the arts of yesteryear. Joni Mitchell inspired Nash to write “Our House,” one of the loveliest songs ever written in the service of describing the bliss of ordinary life. Linda Ronstadt inspired Jerry Brown, called by some “Governor Moonbeam.” She also showed up in one of Paul Simon’s songs in his classic “Graceland.” And Carole King inspired an entire generation in general, and James Taylor in particular.

Brava, sweet-sounding Ladies. I hope some day to do you better justice.

2020 0506 muse

Sing O Muse

Saintly Mama Cass had donned a muu-muu with some room
Innocence in Joni Mitchell fed her aperçu
Next came Linda Ronstadt with a songbird’s light caress
Go-to gals like Carole King rule airways with finesse

NaPoWriMo, Day Fifteen: “Uneasy Listening”

April 15, 2020
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Today’s prompt: “Today, I’d like  to challenge you to write a poem inspired by your favorite kind of music. Try to recreate the sounds and timing of a pop ballad, a jazz improvisation, or a Bach fugue. That could mean incorporating refrains, neologisms and flights of whimsy, or repeating/inverting lines or ideas – whatever your chosen musical form would seem to require! Perhaps a good way to start is to listen to your favorite piece of music and “free-write” for the duration  of the piece, and then use what you’ve written as the building blocks for your poem.”

freewrite prep:

sometimes jackson browne is easy listening
sometimes less so despite his oiled voice
“lives in the balance” is masterfully unsettling
“sky blue and black” makes me cryabit for the loss
of my so great friend
but it is good to be uneasy
it is even good to wallow
as karen said she did
while playing beethoven’s “moonlight sonata”
which she said left her sopping
and jackson browne now sings
“if you ever need holding
you’re the hidden cost and the things that’s lost
in everything I do
YEAHHHH, and i’ll never stop looking for you…
that’s the way love is”

and the way love also is
is quicklikeabunny goneinaminute
when it’s at its best….

****

Geez Louise, did that open up a vein. All right, then, let us begin.

Uneasy Listening

In the course of one day
The mix tape may lull
and then excite
and then inspire
NEED A SKETCHPAD A PENCIL crankcrankcrank

and then the music fades without loss of volume
Because focus Because otherrealm Because it does not fit
AND Then there is a bit of discontinuity
And THEN the music returns to the ear

and the sequence is off
and the mood Doesn’t match
Through no fault of the performer
nor the receiver/it’s just a jump cut/that’s life

find McCartney/Lennon/Billy Preston/georingo

GET BACK
GET BACK
GET BACK twear youonce blongd

twiddle that dial
no–Why So Sirius?
Seek The Specific
Heal The Unease
find Jackson Browne
and let him sing for both of you:

I’M
ALIVE

And then get centered with Mitchell, Joni
with the roundabout
cyclic delight
“The Circle Game”

Gooooood…

And then Prine
Lost-But-Not John
“When I Get To Heaven”

smoke em if ya got em John
we love you
have a Vodka Ginger Ale for me

Ease
Restored….

Clean Break

March 13, 2018
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Prefatory note: I’ve just been through a breakup. No fault is assigned. I posted about the breakup on Facebook, and dozens of friends offered support and kind words. “Make a clean break,” said felinophile and caring friend Sandra. “Turn your angst into art,” said superbly talented, recent-award-winning artist, and dear friend since high school, Beth. “Make art your key love,” said sweet-natured sculptress supreme Deborah. And so this blog post comes to be.

The poem below partakes of several relationships I’ve had but tries not to be specific about who did what to whom, but also tries to avoid being a jumble of ambiguous mush. The three epigrams are of songs that the inner jukebox in my head has been playing in Scramble mode off and on since the breakup, three days and an eternity ago.

To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before
Who traveled in and out my door
I’m glad they came along
I dedicate this song
To all the girls I’ve loved before…

From “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”
Lyrics and music by Hal David and Albert Hammond
Performed by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias

YEEAAAHH…now I’m rolling down California 5
With your Laughter in my head…
GONNA HAVE TO BLOCK IT OUT somehow
To survive,
‘Cause those dreams are dead,
And I’m alive.

From “I’m Alive”
Music, lyrics and performance by Jackson Browne

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way I feel
When every Fairy Tale comes real
I’ve looked at Love that way…

But now it’s just another show
You leave ‘em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away…

I’ve looked at Love from both sides now
From Give and Take, and still somehow
It’s Love’s Illusions I recall
I really don’t know Love
At all.

From “Both Sides Now”
Music, lyrics and performance by Joni Mitchell

Collapse of a relationship! Clench fists hang head and sob
Concoct an explanation for the heart that lost its throb
Could be that there was too much scorn upon the daily cob

Lost hope and lost respect will lose the grip of what’s held dear
Loose talk and snarky attitudes make closeness disappear
Left unattended, intimacy withers, it is clear

Entanglements then trip the feet a home becomes a cage
Enlightenment occurs to one or both to disengage

And fancy explanations all add up to Just Don’t Wanna
And then the nearness stifles like an overheated sauna

Now come finalities and benedictions–one last look
New possibilities are on the next page of the book