Blues is where I go
Hello, welcome to this week’s Blog.
This week a Reggae / Blues flavour; lyrics and poems taken from my 2011 collection “Reggae Riddeema”.
Poem of the week on the homepage, “Beachcombing”, is about the thread running through the generations; our life now and those before us. As is the following poem “Still laughing in a silent way”, about my grandfather.
Still Laughing in a Silent Way
Flat cap on head,
His miner’s hands coax sounds from the accordion.
Grinning with pleasure,
Laughing silently,
Through his toothless mouth.
His spirit striving to the end;
He taps his stick against his leg.
Struggling his will against the failing flesh.
His accordion beside me,
Cold now as the hands that held it.
Filled,
Silent with remembered musics,
Past and gone.
Subduing the guitar, till it and I are one.
Wearing off the newness with play, till it fits,
Like favorite shoes.
Still laughing, in a silent way,
I continue.
Blues Is Where I Go
When I sit and play the blues on my piano
Those flattened notes take me
To another time, another place.
Feeling free, relaxed and peaceful
I play blue
So that others hear the grace.
Can you hear the power?
Telling loud or soft and low
Music has a choice of turns
Blues is where I go.
Blues is where I go
When the day turns not so right.
Blues is where I go
Holds me soft until the light.
Blues is where I go
Try it once and then you’ll see.
For disappointed people
It can be a remedy.
Got a view beyond my window sill,
To the sidewalk down below.
Folks with their concerns and struggles
Just what, how bad,
Only each one knows.
Have you got the feeling?
Let the melody grow
Music has a choice of turns
Blues is where I go.
Blues is where I go
When the day turns not so right.
Blues is where I go
Holds me soft until the light.
Blues is where I go
Try it once and then you’ll see.
For disappointed people
It can be a remedy.
An Exercise for New Year’s Eve
Just for this evening, some alchemy for my soul;
As bellows heat the mix, to meld the whole.
Into the cryptic furnace, in some corner of my heart;
Re-cast these memories, of large and lesser part.
Those favorite things I add, some darker too;
The deeds I celebrate, the acts I rue.
Heat then pour; the stream, the essence right;
Of golden things and diamond days held bright.
Poured into fresh made moulds for future’s use;
Coined, newly minted to spend as I choose.
Milled and mulled on when called to mind,
My ready salve for events unkind.
Left from the melt; the ignoble and unsound,
All my useless brooding sounds.
They will not burn, where’s the place for clinker but ground?
Or the foot of cliffs on that far beach, where clouds lour
As waves scour scrap from recall’s reach.
The alchemy of selection, that’s what I teach.
Why You No listen?
Why you no listen to words I say?
Ev’ry syllable me speak
See them over your head
Drifting away.
Why you no heeding like before?
Ev’ry thought me share left
Knocking and a pleading
Outside your door.
Why you no following me today?
Discarding me thoughts
Like scraps of paper no value
Breezes blown away.
There’s a ranking
I don’t score.
There‘s a ranking
Nobody no more.
There’s a ranking
I don’t figure.
There’s a ranking
Now I’m your disrespect and snigger.
Why you no love me like before?
And you no come around
Ev’ry night for loving
At my door.
Why you think all the sweet things all be said?
Me a lover all times places
From the street around the corners
Not just me bed.
There’s a ranking
I don’t score.
There‘s a ranking
Nobody no more.
There’s a ranking
I don’t figure.
There’s a ranking
Now I’m your disrespect and snigger.
The Affirmations
No sun can set, yet leaves * better wise.
Or smile when seen,
Can fail to light *’s eyes.
The winds may chill, as from the trees fall leaves.
But still the green spring comes,
*’s hope believes.
Life’s stone’s disturb the pool, reflections concealed.
Soon smoothed,
The returned beauty is revealed.
When life’s way dims and pleasures seem in dearth;
Friends hands will bear * up,
To resolve’s birth.
Keep these lines * around you, may they mean;
These affirmations close by,
Read and often seen.
For what we think and dwell on, oft it’s said;
Sets scripts for life,
Our feet follow our head.
* Replace and insert your name here to unlock the inner blessing of these lines.
Until my next Blog, have a good week and take care.
Best wishes,
Louis
This Blog and all contents, copyright Louis J. Casson 2017. All poems taken from the collection “Reggae Riddeema”, 2011
© Louis J. Casson 2017 all rights reserved.