Abstract Photo by Marsha Heiken
sing the sundown
a refrain for the ages
your sky forever
*********************
“Every poem an epitaph.” – TS Eliot
Song
All posts tagged Song
“The Sea at Dusk” by Emil Nolde
evening rain whispers
diminuendo of day
gives voice to the moon
a melancholy music
in tempo of transition
“Blue Birds Abstract” by Donna Holdsworth
singing their verses
perched upon figures of speech
passerine poets
(originally posted November 2013)
Cicada Chrysalis – unknown artist
sleeps seventeen years
when earth hums her waking tone
sheds her scarf to sing
“Diminuendo Sky Study 3” by Scott Naismith
music of life
one long song
one lone voice
connecting the
calendars neat
stapled melody
notes phrased
and paged into
fascicles audible
booklets of time
with diminishing
descant of days
lyrics lessening
volume in wane
tired vocal cords
moreso content
to give whisper
to limited hours
approaching their
fadeout to coda
“Owl Woods” by Anna Jo Vahle
bring me into your song
take my baritone breath
with your quiet contralto
we’ll make sweet duet
give the mountain soft music
beneath rosin boughs
compose lyrical verses
inspired by murmuring
green-scented breezes
by freshets of snowmelt
that purl in their curl
down the slopes to the sea
we pastoral poets
this man and you trees
singer-songwriters
sharing exchanging affinity
gently combining
what modest-made gifts
we were born with
creating one hopes
a few moments of pleasure
brief idylls remembered
when we are both gone
From my book Human Waters
“Bird Song”
Painting by Lynne Taetzsch
From artbylt.com
passerine Paris
sang from her sycamore roost
while hovered the hawk
(Roman Guitar)
stolen strings
found in coffins
of heartbreak
river melody
carries the ache
washes stones
among bones
of dead love
purpled shadows
accompanied
sadly by sighs
serenading the
irony worn by
a fountain gone
silent a balcony
empty forlorn
that a dying a
cold lonesome
lasting cessation
could happen
in this the grand
city eternal the
only voice heard
from this once
happy man is his
weeping guitar
“Rattlesnake Songbirds”
Painting by Kendahl Jan Jubb
From kendahljanjubb.com
innocent morning
arrives in my bedroom
excited with songs
brief and bright
lively descants
who reach me
ahead of the light
messaged music
intoned and articulate
questions and answers
exchanged back and forth
through the trees
of my wakening woods
sprightly rhythms
drive phrases of
free syncopation
repeated and spirited
sequences carrying
long and short notes
interspersed with caesuras
placed perfectly
silences meaning
as much as the sounds
each complex composition
according to timeless
instinctive arrangement
these chantings of chirrups
these warbles and whistles
compete for my
half-asleep wonder
their voices delight me
remind me just
how good it feels
to know I am alive
for another new day
Antique Mandolin
Photo from vintagemandolin.net
bridging fretwork
of six generations
we finger warm tones
of our sultry biography
played upon hills of the
quaint mezzogiorno
in villages breezy
with minstrels our lives
overlapping the music
that drifts along Roman
laid cobbles of stucco
walled donkey-cart lanes
perfect fifths sing from
double-stringed courses
arousing the voices who
gather at tables al fresco
congenial with wine
we cradle in turn of our
time our veined heirloom
this luthier legacy crafted
of rosewood and spruce
Neapolitan bowlback
inlaid with rope purfling
more than an instrument
this is our vessel
our casual joys held and
cherished in songs of two
peasant born centuries
Poesy plus Polemics 