Up and down swing the musical notes
The piano sings like thunderstruck
Under the masterful touch of the jazzman
No need for birdsong, listen to the keyboard
And if you listen deeply, you’ll feel it
The shivers of others’ experiences
As they cry out in song
Cries of love and desparation
Reflect on how good it is to feel
To feel humanity in unison
with the guitars, drums and all other
shivermaking sounds
My darling, look how our flowers grow
they’ve had a good year
let them rest now for the winter
to be stronger than ever next year.
Let their roots shatter all doomsaying rocks
let their blossoms urge love to flourish
let their petals take others along the journey
and let the stems hold us all up.
Tired from a long day’s walk
we rest our weary feet
and sit around a table to meet
and cover the missed day’s talk.
The five lads sitting opposite
take out banjo and fiddle alone
playing, singing tunes of evermore
washing away life’s grime and grit.
The young and naïve poet sitting nearby
tries to capture the jovial mood
but his pen’s no match for the fiddle’s shrewd
tunes of times long whizzed by.
The cold warmth of the autumnal indoors
brings us together here across the world
what an amazing life it is, I behold
the Celtic music healing my sores.
As the autumn rain lashes down, beating the windows to a pulp,
The sky a misty navy grey filled with the week’s memories
Of ochre and crimson maple leaves
Of childhood memories and the sweetest dreams
Linked hands with my beloved
We march, hand in hand, towards our future
For it is you who makes these grey days go flashing by.