Music is no savior, but might be

[dcmarti1]

(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.

[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

[dcmarti1]

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.

[tonyv]

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

[dcmarti1]

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. :)

[Tinker]

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

[dcmarti1]

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. 😉