Lazy rainy Sunday

Feels like it should be the start of a poem, doesn’t it?

On a lazy, rainy Sunday
lonely drops seek company
only to be driven apart by ignorant tires
unaware of what it’s like to be the rain
on a lazy, rainy Sunday.

–
quick edit – Maybe the lines ought to be -

On a lazy, rainy Sunday
lonely drops seek company
only to be driven apart by tired ignorance,
those unaware of what it’s like to be the rain
on a lazy, rainy Sunday.

Which do you like better?

Poetry break

I came up with four little ones related to the seasons that I thought I’d post. They’re nothing special but I had fun thinking them up.

Splashing
puddled
rain
in
grass

–

Season’s
ulterior
motive:
make
everyone
red

–

Apples
under
trees
understand
mister
newton

–

Wind
is
needing
to
enter
rear

–

See what I did there? I think the autumn one is my favourite.

A music post, for something different

The other day at lunch a bunch of us headed out for a bite at the local Co-op salad bar. A late season fly was lazily turning circles around our table to the delight of the kids who were with us. Their mother called out, “Shoo fly, don’t bother me,” as she tried to wave it away from her face and shoulders and, me being me, I continued by singing the rest of the tune as I knew it:

Shoo, fly, don’t bother me
Shoo, fly, don’t bother me
Shoo, fly, don’t bother me
‘Cause I belong to somebody!

Someone else who with us was surprised by the end line. “I thought it was, ‘Cause I belong to Company G!” That led to a bit a head-scratching and shoulder shrugging moment since I’d never heard her version before. I know tunes often wind up with different lyrics over time; a couple good examples being Greensleeves/What Child is This (something I’ve written about before) and the American anthem which was once the tune to a drinking song. There was another recently in a Myrna Loy/Clark Gable film I watched called Manhattan Melodrama where the tune was “Blue Moon” but the song itself was called “The Bad In Every Man,” and the history of that tune winds up being interesting all on its own. Which brings me back to “Shoo Fly” and Wikipedia’s entry about that song, which has all the lyrics nobody sings anymore because they’re the opposite of politically correct.

There’s an opinion piece at the Huffington Post about music called Do We Care About Lyrics Anymore?

With modern pop still chock-full of singles about being in love, being angry at boys and/or girls, going to clubs, putting your hands in the air, and the weekend, (certainly not has much has changed there since the 1950s), it’s never been where wordsmiths go to stand out. But music, in general, might be missing its lyrical heroes. Who are our real poets in 2011? With Occupy Wall Street and the recession and the slipping middle class, it seems like the right time for a new icon to emerge. One that speaks more directly to us, without hiding.

He puts forth Kanye West as a possibility but I can’t say I’ve heard anything by him; I tend to avoid every radio station that plays what’s considered modern pop, preferring to find the acoustic guitarists that get no airtime, or the classic lads and ladies of old. The Man avoids much of what’s considered popular, too, preferring to fill my ears with psychedelic ’70s bands or troubadours and folk singers from the distant days of vinyl. I’m totally out of touch in terms of what’s hot and hip.

the lyricists are out there, but the weight placed on their lyrics has shifted. They’re harder to access and often harder to understand. Lyrics used to be what pushed an artist over the edge, giving him or her that mix of critical and fan appreciation they once needed to stand out. Now, however, the fan has to make an effort to know what it is they’re actually trying to say.

What do you think? Is the shift away from lyrical importance inevitable, as more and more musical genres emerge? Or did life-altering lyrics die along with the CD booklet?

He’s talking in the pop world. One of my favourite artists right now is Diana Braithwaite, a fantastic blues singer. You can hear every word she sings just fine. I think lyrics will still matter to people who want them to matter, the ones who understand that words have power and that whatever music gets put with them should add to the power, not block it out or get in the way. Not everyone cares about getting a message out with their lyrics, though. Do they have to? No. “She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah” is sometimes good enough.

We should have more people like Gil Scott-Heron though. The Man introduced me to his music a while back, particularly this one:

A holiday in Dial Up Land

What more could 1minion want?
A million dollars and a night on the town
and more fun than one human can stand!

Failing that, at least relaxation.
And family comes with perks and delights
Plus the weather report looks to be gorgeous
and I can’t forget Hoarders, (but can station).

Poetical interlude 3

apart
a part of me
shorn off
torn away
amputated
nine months later
phantom pain
still wakes me in the night
no solace from it
but no malice either
it just is what it isn’t -
gone
it’s impossible to come to grips
with a missing hand

(July 19, 2011)

Poetical interlude 2

Resurrect the past?
I can’t.
Why?

Because a moment does not last
and every blink of
eye

takes it further away.
Even as my brain
pretends

it happened yesterday,
I must lay the ghost to rest;
it ends.

Life delivers a new
second, minute,
hour

not a dream. Better to undo
the latch so crazy birds
devour

nothing more of me.
Show them the door so I am
free.

(January 8, 2011)

Poetical interlude 1

so long ago and yet so yesterday
you were here and then you went away
and a little piece of me has died
i’ve lost count of all the tears i’ve cried

so long ago and yet so yesterday
i still remember what i didn’t say
all my dreams broken
by words unspoken

so long ago and yet so yesterday
i cringe to think you’ll pass my way
because life is not a theater set
there’s no easy line and no sure bet

so long ago and yet so far away
i dream a dream and come what may
we’ll get another chance
to dance

But I doubt it

(Decemeber 10, 2010)

Turkey time in Dial-Up Land

like every other year
I take a little holiday–
fill up on family cheer.

The weather will be fine
the food will be divine
and posts will soon resume –
don’t fear!

(via)

Holiday weekend in Dial Up Land

Nothing much for posts are planned.
Instead it’s quiet time with folks
who may or may not share good jokes

So back to blogging for sure on Monday
Hope the weekend has a sun day
or three before the cold winds blow
and clouds above deliver snow

Quotable royal wedding commentary

I didn’t get up in the middle of my night to watch Kate and William wed so I missed hearing them sing “And Did Those Feet in Ancient Times?” at the end. The following, by Colin McEnroe, is about that.

No.
They didn’t.
And it’s not even really a hymn.
It’s based on Blake’s poem which sets the chimerical notion of Jesus walking in England against the imperfections of the industrial revolution and then vows to do something about it.
Two of the “Today” show wedding commentators were exalting the song and saying it was played also at their weddings because, said one, it ends “In England’s green and pleasant land.”
Yes but.
The whole idea of the poem and the song is that everything is very screwed up and needs not to be.
What can you do with people?