Jazz and Poetry a little spot for notes & words to dance

Summer of Stars

This past summer has been full of amazing folks who inspire me to keep on keeping on making the dream come alive. Thank you to all those who live for a living, this is a little gift for all of you.

Thanks to Dan Petrella for recording some of my original songs with my little ukulele I got last November from Lora Pendleton too!  You can listen to all five songs we recorded this week when you sign up for my mailing list at ReverbNation. But for my blog buddies here's one more:

Tip Jar Economy

Everyone I know is trying to sell something. Whether it's a piece of jewelry they made or a life insurance policy. I wonder where timber mogul William Randolph Hearst was when they decided to allow consumers to use paper as legal tender after he helped ban the industrial hemp that George Washington grew. Regardless, our lives are now planned around pieces of greenish paper and how they flow through our hands.

I felt like a "sell-out" putting Google ads on this website for a while, but they never paid enough for the bother. I finally put a donate button right below the booking link a year ago, but I don't think anyone has ever clicked that button. I do get some booking emails though (that aren't spam) and actually turn real ideas into real dollars. Really though this blog has always been a labor of love. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. If I love it for all it can be, then like a well-watered garden it begins to grow.

So, here are a couple fresh new songs out of the notebook free for you to read. You may even find me singing them on a street corner near you. If you feel so moved you can always leave a tip through the "feed the muse" button whether in the form of dollars now or ideas for dollars later.

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Moving On

See that train a coming?
Gonna jump that open car
Let it take me far -- down the track.
My baby's up & left me
Now there's nothing to hold me back.
Been blue too many days,
Now it's time to move on with this pack.

See that shooting star,
Blazing cross the sky?
That's what I'm a-chasing as you see me zooming by
And I may never catch it,
But I'm sure to learn to fly.
I've been caught in a lazy haze
Now it's time to touch the sky.

Don't tell me I can't do it
Because my heart and will are set
If you don't bet on me,
You're bound to lose your hat.
You see I've had enough of crying
Listened to far too much a-lying,
Now this light is going to shine as bright as it can get.

* * * * * * * *

Holiday

Won't you take me down
to where the water is cool?
Just hold my hand a while
Listening to crickets woo.

Tell me a story,
Doesn't have to be true,
Of something that made you smile
Talk of laughter too.

Let's shed society's shackles,
That gossip raises my hackles.
Just whisper something sweet
& it will be a treat.

There's sunshine in your smile,
Starlight in your eyes,
Your voice is an angel's melody
Straight from heaven & that's no lie.

Opposite ends of an evening…

I've been struggling lately to find the words. After writing for other people, it becomes hard to write for yourself again. But, out of last evening came a couple of pieces, the first either a jazz or jump blues little number and the second an odd piece that if nothing else shocked the bar fly that asked to read it as soon as it was finished. (I guess he was imagining me a modern female Bukowski.)

These two pieces came from opposite ends of the evening where my focus was to put pen to paper more than to write for an audience, but I haven't blogged lately, so here you go...

Sweeten up Papa

I just fell off from thinking again
Blew a fuse and had to make amends
It wasn't that I ever want to blow,
But I started getting frustrated with how it might go.

Darling you know I'd never do you no harm
Still I hope & pray to be back in your arms
But the way you're acting lately baby
Ain't no way to treat a lady
So it's time to turn you loose.

Sweeten up papa & come back home.
Lighten up mister, don't you leave me alone.
But if you treat me like a dog and won't throw me a bone
My heart will finally break and turn to stone.

*****

Open the door
With the knob that turns
Rather than knocking forever
On the barred entrance
From your last exit.

Softly let go of the clenched fist
Allowing the light of a new dawn
To dance upon your palm
Then lift your head to greet the sun
with shining eyes.

Out of the shadow of last night's storm
a sunflower bursts in the light of morn.

*****

Even a raging muse needs inspiration sometimes. Last night it came in the form of the music created by Aaron Woody Wood. You can find out more about him and his current album project here on his kickstarter project page.

Poetry Month

April flew by too fast for words, but here are some photos snapped along the way with a little ditty recorded in January with Mike Gray, Henry Westmoreland & Hank Bones for accompaniment while you watch.