In The New Year, Out Of Tune No More

I've made up my mind:

rather than resolving
to do
or not do

this year
my New Year's resolution
will be of the musical kind

where chords played previously
out of harmony

are returned
to the sweet simplicity

of the starting key

that root chord, a double tonic
medicinal in properties

my start,
my centre,
my very core

dischordant
no
more.

If Not Around Our Table, Always In Our Thoughts

I've chosen
Bing Crosby
and Vera Lynn
to fill the suburban silences
of this
sparsely attended Christmas

though snow and sleigh bells
seem
incongruous up against the backdrop
of dried up leaves
and galahs

there's something
about their excessive vibrato
their gentle style
that has led me to forsake
Kylie
and Mariah Carey's anthems,
Wham's ubiquitous
'Last Christmas'.

It's comforting to have
representation
of that generation
lost to us through death
and distance

now that the grey hair
beneath the novelty hats
belongs to their sons
and daughters

if we can remind ourselves of them
in whatever small
abstract
way we can

surely that is a Christmas gift
we can
and should
give ourselves
every year.

Memories Of Leonard Cohen

I ask her how it was
seeing the man
whose voice narrates
the silent post coital scenes
in that old film of memories
I play
from time to time

And she unfolds
the magic of the evening
as if taking something precious
from delicate wrapping
placing it
gently
in front of me

I am as fine boned
as this fragile memory
any swift movement
or cutting phrase
could crush me
as I want her words
put pull warily away
from each exquisite detail.

I remember.

We were ugly,
but we had his music.

Time after time
he would arrive
with honest words,
whilst we would lie
naked
our heavy breathing
accompaniment
to every track.

Now,
no less ugly
but more polished
I'm here on the shelf
with my dusty memories

I still have the music
but without them,
the lovers of my past,

it doesn't sound the same
anymore.

when I shared this with her, she shared this with me, so I'm sharing it with you. we all have our Leonard Cohen memories, sung, in stanzas or unspoken. The one below is Emmy the Great's. It's pretty great.




p.s if you don't have a Leonard Cohen memory, go out and get one.