Siren Song
alone is a far way to go
just to sit
by the sea
to hear a guitar’s
random chords on waves
salt numbing fingers
seagull swooping
from distant rock-face
echoing the broken string
out-of-tune with damp
humming content
up & down the reaches
of beach disappearing
into the enclosing fog
with reason saying go
romance saying stay
till all you can see
are your feet on the trail
to the ocean’s edge
then back to the rock
claimed as temporary home
<>
seeming like hours
the fog drifts away,
you can only throw
a guitar so far
and the sound that it makes
as it hits water
as the bridge breaks on the rocks
seems more fitting
than the fingers found
with still no purpose
but some finality;
too dark now
even to watch the pieces
playing in the waves
the wind picking the trees
more moonlit howling,
it might be time now,
now that you’ve drowned
in the only gift
you felt you had to give
Nov 17/75
Another mythological reference with the title – sailors lured by the irresistible songs like the narrator here is lured by not only the music but the seduction of the romance of being alone by the waves. This is almost a movie moment of our sad hero pining away wrapped up in thoughts & emotions he is afraid to articulate. Perhaps the melodrama of the echo is all he really wants anyway.
There is some real in this piece – I have sat by the ocean, have watching my footprints in the sand washed by the waves, have felt contemplative as I was lulled by the in and out of the water. I have even wandered away from a group of friends just to sit & enjoy the image.
I had the image of sitting the rock, playing guitar & the first lines came to me. This echo of music echoes though many of the pieces in the collection as well. Thus the title Distant Music – things not quite heard, not quite seen in the fog. I still like the transition in the first line ‘alone is a far way to go’ – that takes the abstraction of ‘alone’ & turns it into a destination as opposed to an emotion.
The piece touches on the essential loneness of creativity. Often a choice has to be made between social life & creative life, a choice that isn’t always that comfortable or easy to maintain. One has to be a part of the life around them but at the same time solitude is where imagination finds outlet. I’ve written in groups, but it’s only a step to working things out alone. Unlike musicians there are no writing quartets 🙂 but musicians usually practice in solitude.
I do have a limited number of the original Distant Music chapbook for sale for $25.00 each (includes surface mail postage). Send via the paypal above along with where to send it.
TOpoet 