Oaks A’borning

Thanks to my kind friends Phil and Susan this piece of mine was included in the Mind Trees Of The Urban Forest* project, performed by John Chambers.

 

 

*  https://www.carlislecollective.co.uk/tccf2019/acts/mind-trees-of-the-urban-forest

Words To Music

It’s a while since we had music. But no more. 😀

Words?
You want words?
Hear and think on.
Awakening is but a breath away.
But staying (t)here …
Now, that’s another matter …
Meantime … (Me in time)
sit back and enjoy …

Talk, it’s only talk
Arguments, agreements, advice, answers,
Articulate announcements
It’s only talk

Talk, it’s only talk
Babble, burble, banter, bicker bicker bicker
Brouhaha, balderdash, ballyhoo
It’s only talk
Back talk

Talk talk talk, it’s only talk
Comments, clichés, commentary, controversy
Chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat,
Conversation, contradiction, criticism
It’s only talk
Cheap talk

Talk, talk, it’s only talk
Debates, discussions
These are words with a D this time
Dialogue, duologue, diatribe,
Dissension, declamation
Double talk, double talk

Talk, talk, it’s all talk
Too much talk
Small talk
Talk that trash
Expressions, editorials, explanations, exclamations, exaggerations
It’s all talk
Elephant talk? Elephant talk? Elephant talk!

Plugging In

PLUGGING IN

If you don’t get Miles
or if you don’t get The Dead
you miss out. Big style.
I won’t say anything more.
Let your ears take you walking.

Contemplation

I haven’t posted any music for quite a while, and his description of my site on New Hampshire Garden Solutions (https://nhgardensolutions.wordpress.com) reminded me that it promises “Poetry, music (and) spirituality”. So …

I’ve been playing “Songs Of Love And Regret” by Mal Waldron and Marion Brown a lot recently. On YouTube TEBekken comments, “Incredibly underrecognized album. A true masterpiece. Brown and Waldron conveys true beauty on all selections.”

I concur completely.

Here’s a track from it: their cover of McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation”

I Am Ready For Love

We haven’t had any music here for ages so:

 

Dreams Not Real (Dreams Not real)

Trouble Every Day

(With a wave to Shawn and Jennifer.)

~~~~~~~~~~~

TROUBLE EVERY DAY

Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guess

So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day

Wednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff
And chokin’ in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin’ ’round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin’ down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn

And I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day

Well, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
‘Cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
‘N all that phony stuff on sports
‘N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin’ out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so

And further they assert
That any show they’ll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin’ hard and doin’ swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can’t be beat

And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They’ll send some joker with a brownie
And you’ll see it all complete

So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day

Hey, you know something people?
I’m not black
But there’s a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I’m not white

Well, I seen the fires burnin’
And the local people turnin’
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite ’em
And they say it served ’em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it’s the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
‘N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don’t appeal to him
(No matter if it’s black or white)
Because he’s out for blood tonight

You know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won’t be many live
To see it really end
‘Cause the fire in the street
Ain’t like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don’t you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now’s the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain’t no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn’t free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor

Blow your harmonica, son!

Dover Beach

DOVER BEACH – Matthew Arnold (Published 1867)

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

DOVER BEACH – The Fugs (Released 1967)

Another Take On Valentine’s Day

Spanish Lady

Inexplicably underrated is this wonderful live performance from alto saxophonist John Handy and his group from the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival.The leading critic Ralph J. Gleason wrote. “It’s an exciting group and one that will make jazz history”. Sadly his prediction has yet to be realised. But then it’s not too late. If you are taken with this piece then you can also find another recording from the same performance and album, “If Only We Knew” on YouTube. Enjoy, music lovers. 🙂