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Poetry Magnum Opus

Music is no savior, but might be


dcmarti1

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(I believe T. S. Eliot once said "poetry had better be difficult". This is probably just obscure: 80s music that got me through a difficult 3 years in the Navy.)

There is a taste for mandolins,
for abandoned stone churches without roofs
in that wild frontier where rivers
run low, where just down the road
lies his Paris, where just up the road
are the docks where sailors-in-name
dread the presage of tides,
dread the silhouettes of sinking shadows
along the I64 through Hampton.

Far too late for tapestries,
rooftops, or anything of copper,
fire and rain solve nothing.
Captured angels and exiles,
sand and foam, a hesitant phoenix:
home is never free
and the age is never innocent.

Like a gambler looking backwards,
his morning sky has no ravens,
never looms over groves of hickory,
never provides cover for declining hearts.

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  • 3 weeks later...
David W. Parsley

Obscure or not, this poem reaches me somewhere I can't define, Marti.  What a way to finish!

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 11:38 AM, dcmarti1 said:

Captured angels and exiles,

sand and foam, a hesitant phoenix:
home is never free
and the age is never innocent.

Like a gambler looking backwards,
his morning sky has no ravens,
never looms over groves of hickory,
never provides cover for declining hearts.

Thanks,

 - Dave

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3 hours ago, David W. Parsley said:

Obscure or not, this poem reaches me somewhere I can't define, Marti.  What a way to finish!

Thanks,

 - Dave

All snippets from titles or lyrics in Dan Fogelberg songs. Hornsby and Fogelberg were emotional outlets for me the last 2 or 3 years in the Navy. Thanks for reading, as always.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Music affects us in complex ways. This poem delivers a pleasing musical read.

The silhouettes of sinking shadows/along the I64 through Hampton -- is that one of yours or from one of the songs?

Tony

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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4 hours ago, tonyv said:

Music affects us in complex ways. This poem delivers a pleasing musical read.

The silhouettes of sinking shadows/along the I64 through Hampton -- is that one of yours or from one of the songs?

Tony

A mix.....from a photo on the CD inside fold-out on a Bruce Hornsby CD. The photo was of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, but since my Navy experience was in Norfolk / Hampton Roads / Nedwport News....I fudged it. :)

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23 hours ago, Tinker said:

I love the fluidity of this piece.  I wanted to sway to the rhythm.   I don't care where or why, the images were places I'd love to see.  I liked this poem.

~~Tink

You are always too kind. 😉

 

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