Starry, Starry Night

Driving down country roads. Rocks and rubber singing in harmony. Rows of brown corn flash by and disappear behind us. You tune the radio and the melodies form images in our brains. We’re ready to Drift Away on the Midnight Train to Georgia. Your Killing Me Softly with your closeness. I whisper Give Me a Little Love, you sing Dream On. Later, lying on the hood, the warmth from the engine against our backs we stare at the stars in the sky as they dance to the rhythm of Diamond Girl. The radio croons Let’s Get it On.

Do you remember the year?

Well John and Mitchy were getting kind of itchy, cause it was kind of a drag to not be groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon. So I said we’re going to San Francisco and I don’t care how much money I gotta spend, so we can fly. Here, the hometown looks the same but, you’re gonna meet some gentle people there and the rows of houses are all the same and nobody seems to care. Nothing is real and there’s nothing to get hung about. So there’s not a trace of doubt in my mind that when logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead, you can either stand in the pouring rain or hide behind rainbow’s wall.

Now, it was on the third of June, another sleepy, dusty delta day you asked me if there’ll come a time that we’ll go riding along on a carousel. I thought you looked too good to be true. You told me, “I aint never loved a man.”

But baby, I need your lovin’ and I know what you want…baby, I got it.

So let’s spend the night together and don’t worry ‘bout tomorrow. Then, all over the world you can hear the sound of lovers in love.

That’s when we skipped the light fandango because we both knew that all you need is Love.

Rest

‘Rest is a good thing but boredom is its evil brother”

Rest; we all need it. A good night’s sleep can fill up our energy tanks and send us off to face a brave new world all bubbly and inspired. (Or is that coffee?)

But boredom is something quite different. It can make people drink too much, start extra-marital affairs, rob gas stations, deface property and even make us fat. Where rest gives us energy, boredom sucks it away. The root of all evil is not money, but boredom.

So keep your mind occupied: read a book, go for a walk, call a friend or learn how to play the guitar. Or as my son says, “become the pharaoh of the world.” Whatever it is, set a goal and keep working toward it.

Love and Peace

The Backyard Poet

Taking the Backroads

My youthful dreams walked

A thousand miles

Through your summer dust

Your jagged face pressed

Against my calloused feet

Your solitude, a reservoir

For so many unwritten thoughts

I cried the day

They covered you in black

And carried away my innocents

On the back of their empty promises

Among the Stars and Moon

Among the Stars and Moon

You told me so many stories

Tales of someday very soon

Your God would lift our mortal veil

And we would join the stars and moon

 

I paid no heed to your warnings

For I was innocent and young

I had so many dreams to live

Too many songs left yet unsung

 

Tonight the ring broke the silence

Told me your words had come to pass

That your God sent down his Angels

And they welcomed you home at last

 

Now, that age has crept upon me

Can’t help but think about it all

How, in my life, I seldom prayed

That’s if I ever prayed at all

 

If it’s not too late my brother

I’ll learn that celestial tune

So that we might dance together

Out there, among the stars and moon