Lines I Wish I’d Written
February 14, 2009
Holy Smokes! A lot is going on behind the scenes lately. Instead of writing about it – or writing at all, really, I thought I would toss you the lyrics to one of my favorite songs (not a love song, but vaguely romantic lyrics-wise) and just move right along.
“All the lovely ladies in their finery tonight
I wish that I could know them one by one
All the handsome gentlemen with loving on their minds
Strolling in to take the ladies home
Bless you all and keep you on the road to tenderness
Heaven can be yours just for now.
All the gentle strangers who by nature do not smile
To everyone who cannot hold a pen
To all you heavy rounders with a headache for your pains
Who dread the thought of going ’round the bend
Bless you all and keep you on the road to better things
Heaven can be yours just for now.
To all the lovely ladies in their finery tonight
I wish that I could kiss you while you knit
To all the ones who learn to live with bein’ second-guessed
Whose job it is to give more than they get
Bless you all and keep you with the strength to understand
Heaven can be yours just for now.
To all the little dreamers with a dream that cannot last
To all the sleeping giants who must wake
To every man who answers to the letter of the law
And all the rest imprisoned by mistake
Bless you all and keep you with the faith to let it pass
Heaven can be yours just for now
To all the lonely sailors who have trouble being seen
To all of you with heartache that remains
Maybe sometime later you might swim back into shore
If someone could relieve you of your chains
Bless you all and keep you all on the land or on the sea
Heaven can be yours, just for now
- Gordon Lightfoot, “All the Lovely Ladies”
Lines I Wish I’d Written
February 10, 2009
Today’s edition is kind of a scattershot. The first comment is the kind of thing I tell Rebekah whenever she throws out, inadvertently or otherwise, some of the notes I leave lying around in messy piles all over the house. The other two are just good stuff.
“Captain Sir Richard Burton died in Trieste on October 20, 1890. Alarmed by the…content of her husband’s papers, Isabel Burton burned almost all of his notes, diaries, and manuscripts – an immeasurable loss to history.”
-from the foreword to a very good selection of Sir Richard Burton’s translation of The Arabian Nights.
“What is youth except a man or woman before it is ready or fit to be seen.” – Evelyn Waugh, who must have taught junior high.
“Everybody’s got a secret, Sonny
Something that they just can’t face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
‘Til some day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag ‘em down
Where no one asks any questions
Or looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town”-Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Journal/Lines I Wish I’d Written
January 16, 2009
I don’t mean to keep copping out like this, but by Friday I’m exhausted, so I’ll push back the telling of a potentially hilarious story concerning my recent search for some serious illumination until tomorrow or Sunday. This Friday is especially tough, as Rebekah departed last night for the “family therapy” weekend which concludes Phoebe’s stay in rehab – it goes for like 12 hours a day, so ‘Bekah, Merlyn, and Abbey are staying in a cabin up there for the weekend. I’ll be one lonely burro for the next few days, except for Clem and my shiny new copy of Guitar Hero, I guess.
I’m pretty sure ‘Bekah is having a worse time than me, though. Part of the therapy is “resentment therapy” which doesn’t sound either fun or constructive. I just hope this isn’t one of those organizations where they seem to take the addict’s side, and blame the problem on the family or friends – because I’ve been close enough to this situation to see that that premise is just plain ol’ bull$%!& in this case, so “Lay not that flattering unction to your soul”, as Shakespeare put it.
“Got me a pretty mama Got me a bulldog, too My pretty mama don’t love me But my bulldog do”- Jimmie Rodgers, “Blue Yodel #10″
“Too much zeal offends Where indirection works”-Euripides, Orestes
“The perfume that she wore was from some little store On the down side of town But it lingered on long after she’d gone I remember it well And our fingers entwined like ribbons of light And we came through a doorway somewhere in the night”-Gordon Lightfoot, “Affair on 8th Avenue”
Lines I Wish I’d Written
January 10, 2009
Yes, that’s right, I’m copping out on doing my own writing and just packaging up other people’s brilliance again. I’m not sure where yesterday’s post came from, but it seems to have exhausted my own creativity for the moment. I’ve been pleased to see so many visits to my humble blog this week, though, so I am trying to be clever enough to get you all to keep coming back…
“There’s a guru snoozin’ in a limousine And a whole industry pumping blood into recycled scenes Soon there’ll be one corporation selling one little box It’ll do what you want and tell you what you want and cost whatever you got”- Greg Brown, “Where’s Maria?”
“Now I hear she’s got a house up in Fairview And a style she’s trying to maintain Well if she wants to see me, you can tell her that I’m easily found Tell her there’s a spot out ‘neath Abrams Bridge And tell her there’s a darkness on the edge of town”-Bruce Springsteen, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”
“Exuberance is beauty.” – William Blake
Well, that’s all for now, tomorrow we finish up at the sulfur mines.
Lines I Wish I’d Written
January 2, 2009
Since I was an idiot yesterday and forgot to publish my completed post, today is double post day! This post, which was today’s intended post all along, is a wee bit thin anyway, so maybe it’s good that it has some company.
Anyhow, I envision “Lines I Wish I’d Written” as a sort of irregularly recurring feature in the style of my playlist (returns tomorrow, hopefully) or the “A Day in the Life” series (which is rapidly drawing to a conclusion – I’m guessing about three more posts should cover what’s left).
For each of these posts, I’ll pick a few of my very favorite quotes or song lyrics (today it’s song lyrics) just to share with you, no extra commentary on my part. After all, the whole premise is that these folks said it better than I could have.
“In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream” – Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take / She’s filing her nails while they’re dragging the lake” – Elvis Costello, Watching the Detectives
And for this last one I just couldn’t find a favorite part to quote, so here’s the whole song:
Song for a Winter’s Night
By Gordon Lightfoot
“The lamp is burning low upon my table top
The snow is softly falling
The air is still in the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly calling
If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
On this winter night with you
The smoke is rising in the shadows overhead
My glass is almost empty
I read again between the lines upon each page
The words of love you sent me
If I could know within my heart, that you were lonely too
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
On this winter night with you
The fire is dying now, my lamp is growing dim
The shades of night are lifting
The morning light steals across my windowpane
Where webs of snow are drifting
If I could only have you near, to breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
And to be once again with you”
Ground Rules
November 11, 2008
It is my intention to update this blog every day, but I’m a realist. I know there are going to be some days where I don’t feel up to either creativity or confession. On those days (of which today happens to be an excellent specimen), I plan to post either quotes, or trivia, or cool links, or some other little tidbit to avoid letting any visitors or subscribers down. Today’s grab bag:
“The first time ever I kissed your mouth / I felt the earth turn in my hand / Like the trembling heart of a captive bird” – Ewan MacColl, “The First Time Ever I saw Your Face”
A trivium in honor of Veteran’s Day: America’s highest military award is the Medal of Honor. There have been just 19 double-recipients of the award, and of these only 14 won their two Medals on separate occasions (the other 5 won both the Army and Navy Medal of Honor for the same incident of heroism).
Incidentally, my blog’s spell-checking program does not recognize the word “blog”. Oops.
