Songs,poems and life

   I happened to come across two posts that I shared this week. One was a begrudging acknowledgment that the Ukraine war might not be as black and white as the Biden folks tried to claim. The other was a horrible abuse of power and false imprisonment perpetuated by the Trump administration. As a US citizen I can tell you that these days you risk losing friends and family and being branded whichever political view you claim. I personally don't do politics anymore mainly because of that. Everyone has a reason to justify  their hatred and it gets nasty. So to cleanse my mind of Donnie and Joe, JD and Bernie and all the rest I go to my love of music, comedy and the paranormal. 

With that being said I wanted to do a blog on song's that have influenced me or made me think. Now music doesn't always have to make me think for me to enjoy it. From my youthful stoned enjoyment of KISS to my drunken partying to Hank Jr. singing "Family tradition." a song is often just a good beat a loud guitar or a memory of teenage angst. Nothing especially deep. But some songs stay with me because of lyrics or the story they tell. They may or may not be my favorite. Because with songs and me it depends on my mood and time and place. So I really can't say that any one song is my favorite.

I'm also a little odd because there are times when I really don't want to hear music at all. I love to get quiet and as an introvert I can tell you that there is a difference between privacy which I enjoy and loneliness which I certainly don't enjoy.

But these are some songs that tell a story. That paint such a vivid picture that I see the scenes both of the songs and my own life that they evoke. So, this is a hate free zone. No politics, religion or hate speech. 

1. Willin by Lowell George. This was covered in the seventies by Linda Ronstadt and her cover has always stayed with me. These lyrics and her heartfelt  belting out of this song captivated me in my youth. Warped by the rain. driven by the snow. Drunk and dirty but don't you know that I'm still. Willin. It causes me to remember my mispent youth. When I would wake up after a night of crazziness and even of having suffered some abuse in a bar or an argument and still I was standing. The weed, whites and wine part just paints a picture of a long night and an early morning hangover. No, I'm not saying those are good things. Drunk, Stoned and stupid is no way to go through life. I'm just saying it paints a picture.And in my youth I could feel these lyrincs. 

2. I'm so lonesome I could cry. Hank Williams. My mother loved country music I grew up with a step dad who played the guitar and a mother who sang country music constantly. I didn't love country music. I rebelled against it. But, it still stuck As a matter of fact when arthritis isn't acting up and you hand me a six string I can play almost any song from that era From Hank to George to Merle to Loretta to Patsy Cline. But I'm so lonesome I could cry is easily the best and most vivid story song ever written. At least I think so. Just this verse alone "The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky. And as I wonder where you are. I'm so lonesome I could cry." Or this "I"m never seen a night so long. and time goes crawling by. The moon just went behind the clouds to hide it's face and cry. And this one reminds me of a night in Altoona, Alabama back in my youth in the country."Hear that lonesome wipporwill. He sounds too blue to fly. The midnight train is whining low. I"m so lonesome I could cry."  Maybe it's because I'm Southern or maybe it's just the imagery of a lonely night. But it sticks man. 

3. Midnight Train to Georgia. Gladys Knight.

Ah Gladys Knight.Hearing her belt out this song is perfection,. "Said he's going back to find. What's left of his world.: "The world he left behind. Not so long ago." Gotta say that the thought of gong back is something we all think about and rarely if ever can do. But this man is tired. Been through enough. Wants to get back home. This woman has got to be with him. So, she's getting on that train too. I always said I wanted this song played at my funeral. For some reason this always filled me with hope. Even though I might find my body old and failing one day. I'm gonna get on that train and get back home. To where I can be who I really am. Maybe I"m reading it wrong. But art is always a personal thing in the end. so maybe I can't be wrong. 

4. When you are Old. W.B. Yeats. 

This of course isn't a song. It's a poem. Now I"m not a poem person. But this one has always spoken to me. I first heard it even though it's an old poem in the 1980's during a "New Twilight Zone" episode titled "Her Pilgrim Soul." It involed technology and research and reincarnation. The poem was read at the end and it was always spiritual for me. Some say it isn't uplifting. That it's about loss. but I don't think so. I  think it's about optimism and the passage of time which really doesn't effect love or the soul. So I'm going to type out the full poem here. It's a short one. And it's my absolute favorite.

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire,take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace, and loved your beauty with love false or true.But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you. Ad loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars ,murmur a little sadly, how love fled and paced upon the mountains overhead. And hid his face among a crowd of stars...W.B. Yeats

Now I admit that sounds sad. But I always thought the face (soul) is eternal and will be revealed in all it's glory as will the face of the pilgrim soul once we are beyond the stars. Beyond this temporary world.

Welp with that I'm done with this one. It wasn't quite what I was expecting to write about today. I'm really not in a melancholy mood. But, it's always a release for me to write things down. If you read all my blabbering I thank you.

Peace!

Prayer & coffee ☕

 Coffee & Prayer from an exile

I have a life long friend who told me he never has prayed much. It got me thinking about myself. Looking at my upcoming 68th trip around the sun i realized that i have always prayed. It's certainly changed over a lifetime. From a childhood raised “in the church” as we say in the South. To a more mature evangelical and then a more progressive faith. And finally to a “religion is stupid” meditative everything is one type of faith. I'm a more “Autobiography of a Yogi” type person than an “Acts” of the apostles type these days. But at 67 years old i find my focus i is just not there to sit in meditation. So a quiet walk and earnest prayer either in my own head or softly out loud works best for me. I just hope the people i see assume i'm on my phone via Bluetooth. If that doesn't work i can always play the “ eccentric old man card.”

I think about the folks who laugh about thoughts & prayers. Even the bible says something about the pointless prattle of saying “be clothed & well fed.” Instead of taking action.

Still prayer centers me. I no longer think there's an angry old man getting his blood pressure up everytime i look at a woman or say a cuss word. But I still feel heard and valued.

A few years ago i had an experience between meditation, sleep & coming up out of a hypnogogic state. I was in a place of pure white light. Brighter than the sun but soothing and no harshness. I was in the light and i was of the light. Everything that ever was, is or will be is in the light. My ancestors, family and all that is were in the light.

It is another sign along the journey for me. I don't try and define God,Goddess,Source. I know that i’m a being of light. I know we all come from that light and i don't think religion,atheism, or anything else matters. Except to the extent you find it helpful.

The coffee was good this morning. So was the prayer 🙏 ✌️

Aliens or gathering of Angels

 A gathering of angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope and this is what they said...Styx

As i grow older i become less inhibited about letting my freak flag fly.

I was talking to a friend not long ago about UFO's and other mysteries. I mentioned that i have always been fascinated by accounts of alien abduction and lights in the sky. She had a personal reason for not being comfortable with UFO stories and i respect that. 

I said if a UFO landed i'd run up to it and take off. My friend was horrified at the thought. But i was thinking.

I've grown old. I've had heart surgery and i'm developing some twinges in my hands and legs. I'm well into my 60's. I'd take my chances on one awesome adventure at this stage in life 

"I thought that they were angels. Much to my surprise. We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies....Styx"

It's funny because i'm not a bolts and nuts science fiction fan. I remember not being able to keep my eyes open during the movie "Alien" it was so slow and dark when it started.

But thinking of craft from another dimension. Of worlds and wonders beyond the same old,same old is fun.

"Hey Mr Spaceman. Would you take me along. I won't do anything wrong. Would you take me along for a ride...The Byrds

I follow the thread on UFO'S on X formerly known as UFO Twitter. I innocently thought it would be full of starry eyed folks like me discussing how awesome the universe is. 

But it's full of people worrying about demons, false government conspiracy and debunkers who act like any wonder or hope about the universe has to be squashed immediately in the name of rationality and their own view of what constitutes science.

I just want to walk out under the stars and put an old Art Bell Coast to Coast radio show on in the background and star watch and wonder. Did i just see that star move?

Peace!

While going down the rabbit hole of UFO'S and aliens and maybe time traveling humans. After all what if the Grays and Nordics and other alien species are our own future humans trying to prevent an apocalypse?

Well anyway while thinking of stuff i ran across an old Brownsville Station song called the Martian Boogie.

I'm too lazy to write out the lyrics but if you do a little youtube,google research it's not hard to find. 

One line mentions some martian cigarettes. Maybe it's the rock and roll and memories of youthful nights of my misspent youth in a haze of beer and wacky terbacky followed by a run out to Walnut Grove Alabama on 278 to get a greasy burger basket at Scruggs Truck Stop. 

The 70's were a little bit more unenlightened about driving while under the influence.  But the song lyrics took me back.

After all old men like to think of long ago blonde haired women in halter tops and dark haired women at the bar. how cold the beer tasted and the warm smell of colitas rising up through the air. It's all harmless memories as long as you remember being drunk and stoned is no way to go through life. 

But every once in awhile i forget the arthritis in my hands and grab my guitar. 

Then i travel back somewhere between rural Etowah County and Gadsden. The stars are bright and the moon is full and i swear if they ain't serious those aliens better not land. Cause I'm climbing aboard! 

"Come sail away, come sail away. Come and sail away with me...Styx"