Boat Across the River
Just another WordPress.com weblogArchive for Music
love. guitars.
at the show
guitarists play
one guitar is cherry red
shining in a bright light
i start to feel
that it’s become my heart
the room shakes
music beats inside my chest
either that or I
am inside this song
pieces of the ceiling fall
our seats vibrate
they are pulsing
the whole balcony
beats the rhythm
that beats on stage
and in our chests
will we all fall down?
i think that any minute now
during any one
of these songs
we could each break open
like eggs and ooze together
in the frying pan.
Songs: Summer
waves of vibrating sound
crash on a leafy shore;
the insects hug close against
the gold-green trees of summer.
Or they could be thousands
of those rain tubes that you
turn upside down, singing
together in a round.
Tiny weathermen –
seems the louder
they hum, the hotter
it will be. The sound of eternity
breaking from the hot
Earth’s core, gets inside my head
and I hear their mantra
rattling inside everything:
in the air conditioner, the hair dryer
the engine of the car –
I hear them everywhere
they are or are not,
like the way I could see only
shark’s teeth when I closed my eyes,
after searching at the beach.
Dancing Guy Video
I went to a three day work seminar recently, where we were shown this video. I really liked it and wanted to share it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ
Music to My Ears
Last night before bed, as my daughter ate her snack, she was trying to rhyme words together. I had been trying to teach her what rhyming words are a few days ago. In between bites of cottage cheese, she would run over to a chair she had pulled out and would pretend to write down her “poetry” with a pen. I love that when she writes now, the scribbles actually look like words and sentences. She does a good job at imitating what a written sentence looks like in English. These are two of the poems that she dictated (as she scribbled on her notepad) and that I wrote down (in English!):
Walking and playing
after I eat,
You play with that horsey
then you
go to sleep.
And…
After you eat,
you brush your teeth;
you put on your sunglasses
and hat
and go to sleep.
These are her very first poems and she came up with them all on her own! I love it.
Heavenly Day
(That is a great song by Patti Griffin, by the way).
When I stepped out my front door at 6:45 this morning, it was raining. But it was so gorgeously warm and balmy. It was one of just a few times where I’ve stepped into darkness and felt totally comfortable. Usually, the dark scares me — that fear of the unseen. This morning, though, felt like the time I was in the Caribbean.
We stepped into the ocean and it was clear and blue and warm and the French couple we met — the guy — described it as the only time he’d been swimming in the ocean when he felt “no hesitation.” That’s how I felt this morning. I stepped into the warm wet darkness like I had stepped into the ocean: with no hesitation.
The tall tree in front of me opened thousands of its white flowers in my face and all the birds were singing and singing. Was it a bright and sunny afternoon? No. Was it beautiful? Yes.
Dreaming: I
I woke up early the other day, and realized I had been dreaming of words. They were the words to a favorite song, well loved, but also one I’d never heard before. What were they saying to me? What was I supposed to understand?
The words were floating by above me as I lay on my back, outstretched on the ground. Like birds, the words flew with purpose, thousands of them; they were going somewhere. I was reaching up to try to pull some of them down to me, as if they were helium balloons attached to strings…
Ugga, Ugga, Ugga
We bought S. a little stuffed cat that is somehow made entirely of recycled plastic bottles; you can even recycle the cat when you are done playing with him! S. loves him so much, I could never do that, though.
She played with him, meowed at him, and rubbed his white feet against her face the whole hour’s car ride home. At home, I asked her what his name would be and after a few seconds of thought with her eyes searching the skies, she replied that it would be “Ugga.” A little later I asked her again, to see if she would remember the first name, and again he was baptized Ugga. In her bed, she fell asleep with him in her arms, but not before singing a sweet song into the darkness about Ugga and me.
Simon and Garfunkel
After mentioning Edie Brickell, I feel compelled to bring up Paul Simon, and frankly I can’t believe I haven’t already. When I was fourteen years old, I discovered Simon and Garfunkel after hearing their version of Scharborough Fair on the radio while my dad drove us home from swim practice. I had heard it before, but hadn’t gotten around to figuring out who sang it, I guess.
My folks got me a Simon and Garfunkel cassette tape (music on tape! ha!) for Christmas and hence began a life-long love affair.
A few years ago, I heard the two of them sing together on their reunion tour. I’d heard Simon many times before, by himself, and Garfunkel several times as well. I went twice to hear the two of them, in two different cities. For the first, I went with J. and we were a little late, caught in horrendous traffic. I was completely freaking out that we were going to miss the moment when they come out on stage, heaven forbid we miss the first song. At the last minute, J. dropped me off outside the stadium and drove off in search of parking, while I dodged my way across lanes of traffic, literally running for the doors. Our seats were on the floor, and I found mine just as the lights went dark and they came out on stage. I wish I’d written down the setlist, because I don’t remember what song they opened with, but I know I started crying…just a few tears! I don’t think it would have mattered what song it was. It was just the fact that two icons, who I’d been listening to since I was a kid, who I never thought I’d hear together, were singing right in front of me.
I have a couple of framed S&G album covers here, next to the computer, and my daughter always points to them and says, “Mama, Daddy.” I don’t know which of us is supposed to be which of them, but honestly, with Paul Simon’s lyrics and Art Garfunkel’s voice, I’d be happy to be mistaken for either one.
Their’s is the first music I ever really knew or loved.
Relax and Enjoy
Sitting outside this morning, watching my daughter play with her truck and purple bunny who is named Purple (pronounced “Pupple”), I think back to a conversation I had yesterday. Speaking with my grandfather about religion is always where he and I connect the most. Politically, we are at opposite ends of the spectrum, and he never fails to let me know that the next Civil War is fast approaching because of people like me. I know he is speaking out of a genuine belief that there is only one way, politically speaking, and he is really trying to help me get back on the right track. It’s not unlike the attitude of some of the Big Religions.
Given his strong political beliefs, it is a great irony that religiously I couldn’t agree with anyone more. Yesterday he reiterated his belief that one of the greatest mistakes of organized religions is that people try to give human qualities to the Creator, who is not human. He has a great respect for those who are willing to say “I don’t know” in regards to God and all those God questions. He said yesterday, “We might know someday. Or we might never know.” I think it’s true, and we just have to make peace with that.
Watching S. play outside, I was content to watch her, watch the clouds floating overhead across a blue sky, watch the trees swaying almost imperceptibly, listen to the cicadas make their soothing racket. I thought, “This is all I have to do.” I don’t have to figure anything out, or run around trying to get chores done that are never really done.
Two songs come to mind:
1) What I Am — Edie Brickell
“Philosophy is a walk on the slippery rocks.
Religion is a light in the fog.
I’m not aware of too many things,
but I know what I know if you know what I mean.
Choke me in the shallow water before I get too deep.
What I am is what I am.
Are you what you are – or what?
Don’t let me get too deep.”
And…
2) Take it Easy — The Eagles
“Take it easy, take it easy
Don’t let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy.”
Have a good day!
State of Swing
We went to McDonald’s for breakfast this morning. I was still in an excellent mood from our concert the night before. The last time I went to McDonald’s was shortly after the Gulf oil disaster began, and for some reason I was encouraged about the state of humanity after that culinary experience. This time around, such was not the case. McDonald’s, and every other fast food chain, could do much, much better, environmentally speaking. Seeing the amount of trash these people produce in a single morning, I found myself in a daydream about starting a business where I sell biodegradable plastic straws, plastic silverware, plastic cups, etc. to every restaurant in the state. Driving back to the house, multiple plastic bags blew across the street in front of us.
Once home, I turned on some music and collapsed, mentally exhausted, into a soft chair.
Maybe if I just never turn off the stereo, I won’t notice the world crashing down around me, or being swallowed up in plastic.
Cheers.
