Just putting some of my poetry here to see the emotions it invokes. Comments welcome.
Inspired by Sharron Isbin and her live perfomrmance of “Astoria” on N.P.R.
2/9/05
The guitar is the only instrument I can compare thee to.
No, not an American song being played,
But the Spanish “Astoria”, for this is how your life was:
Fast, Forceful, full of energy,
And over much too soon.
An unexpected ending filled with soft notes
And one last quick ditty before slow notes
Which seem to stop before time.
I often feel as if you are only hiding in the shadows,
Ready to spring and prove me the bigger fool to think it’s finished.
Yet there are no more notes,
Your song ends in an inducement for tears,
And I not grasping the request till three days after.
At one point you seem so full of life
And yet you said your goodbyes to all save me
And for that I bleed almost daily…
Wondering if you had called would the song have had a few more notes,
Or would it have ended even more prematurely?
Could I have added a second melody and made you shine,
Or would I have only encouraged you to rest for a measure
If even that such rapture would I have known.
I’m sorry I was not an attentive audience,
Sorry I came at intermission,
Sorry I seemed only to find a seat backstage
Where I could only barely hear if sitting absolutely still.
I wish I had been brave enough to sit onstage among your friends;
But only a coward drummer am I.
And drums have no place in your song…
Not now when the music’s disappeared.
