Writing101

Starry Starry Night

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Today’s Prompt: Write about the three most important songs in your life — what do they mean to you?

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) – Don McLean. There are other songs that will always haunt me because they are attached to particular persons or events.  A love song that She said was special to her, my son singing I can’t help falling in love with You” to his new bride.  Those are a part but they did not make me, me.  I recall a little boy hearing Don McLean’s American Pie album for the first time and being somehow moved by words and themes and music that were much too sophisticated for him. In 1971 he was 8 years old. But in spite of his naiveté and innocence he was strangely attracted to and moved by it. It was and still to this day is hauntingly familiar. Like part of my older story somehow, a part of me. Something I knew before and was reminded of and recognized as true. Perhaps it was the ferment of the times that my young heart sensed and acknowledged. But there has been a sad, persistent, longing, that required some answer for as long as I have known.  In fact the whole album (because it was a vinyl album then) contains several of the most meaningful songs in my life. So pick three. All of them are a part of my soul now.
But the Van Gogh reference has followed me my whole life. I have never formally studied his work but somehow that song and his life has played on the horizons of my consciousness for decades. I have for as long as I remember asked odd questions. I wanted to know things that many in my orbit had not considered. A few years ago, during a dark time in my life, I would say that I understood why he cut off his ear. Pain creates art. But not just any pain. It is the pain of needing to understand. An existential stubbornness that demands creativity and beauty from chaos. This year on my 52nd birthday I found out that Vincent and I share the same one. It was eerie but somehow again not surprising. I do understand why he cut his ear off. And I share his need for beauty amid the chaos, poetry from the ashes.  Even now tears puddle around my eyelids listening to these songs. Be most Groovy!

Empty Chair – Why does this song effect a boy and decades later the man?

American Pie – Full album if you would like to hear a real poet.

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Howling at the Moon

Day Two: A Room with a View

Today’s Prompt: If you could zoom through space in the speed of light, what place would you go to right now?

 

There is only one place that can hold my attention
In fact it has called to me from before the foundations
Beckoning senses, whispering to my flesh to seek, to move, to explore
Quiet longings, muted dissatisfaction, boredom, or
Ravenous hunger, desire calling me to go out not knowing
To once again leave that which is Not in search of what Is
I have sorted through much of what is Not
I have traveled to exotic lands and lived among it’s people
I grew, I learned, but what I sought was not there
I searched the ancient writings and consulted the white-haired teachers
I grew, I learned, but what I sought was not there
I played the World’s game, trading myself for the trappings, the spoils of it
I grew, I learned, but what I sought was not there

I became a “Good” man, but the emptiness remained, there in my so-called good
I became a “Bad” man but even there was no sustenance, it too was an illusion
All the things I have seen, all the things I have done
No matter the promise, no matter the sacrifice
Each at the End answered with a resounding No
This is not It
This is not the Thing
This is not the Place you seek
And the space remained empty, longing, aching for consummation

There is a space which cannot be measured or mapped
Its breadth and length are beyond reckoning
The senses lose their bearing on the horizon of Here and There
They are undone, remade, once the Masters, now the Slave
Eyes may notice a form that quickens the blood without reason
The ears may hear a sound, a voice that stirs, that lifts ever hopeful Soul
The tongue may savor a kiss, exquisite and unique, a taste reminiscent of Home Coming
A fragrance may enchant, loosening the bonds, connections which bind soul to body
Waves of energy course through flesh as it crosses the threshold of There
Tender, sweet, intimate expanse, it now Exists, boundaries have no meaning
I is left behind as something new bursts into Being
Lifted up, energy, light, fierce passion, quiet rest, as two become One
At once a place of losing and finding, forgetting and remembering All
This is my Home
She is my Beloved