Holidays

Mirrors and Memories

By on • ( 48 Comments )

And so it was

As I pondered tonight

What should I post

What should I write

 

Many folks are busy

With kith and with kin

Anything I scribble

Will hit the dust bin

 

Unseen and forlorn

Lost in the fray

Of folks celebrating

The spirit of the day

 

But then I heard a song play

On speakers of blue-tooth

One that reminded me

Of my long-fading youth

 

I couldn’t always be

With those I hold dear

But music would play

That still held them near

 

So I proffer to you

Some tunes from the past

Which help keep alive

A certain joy that should last

 

We can’t always get what we want

But if you try sometimes

You get what you need

In mushy lyrics and rhymes

 

My poetry is a bit haphazard and weak

Scribbled in a desperate 15-minute pace

But these songs go out to those of us

Who remember a certain time and a place.

 

Peace.

 

P.S. Yes, I realize that last one is not necessarily a Christmas song. But the performance is great, and the gratitude that kd shows at the end for her audience? Well, that’s the gratitude I have for those of you who keep coming back to Bonnywood to see if I’ve done anything decent lately. Thank you…

 

Previously published. No changes made, as this one still feels just right, despite the amateurish poetry and reliance on period-piece music to overcome the gaps in the script. (John Hughes movies, anyone?) This has been a wretched year, in many ways, but I still believe in the magic and promise of the holiday season. And even if some of us can’t be with our families this year, I do hope you are comforted by the memories in your own mirrors.

 

Categories: Holidays

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

48 replies »

  6. All those songs, and only one of them is amongst those I’ve been sharing! I have some catching up to do. Thanks, Brian, for a lovely post and for all the entertainment you give us. Merry Christmas!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Merry Christmas to you as well, Clive. I did pause a bit when I pulled up this past post for revision and I remembered that you had just shared the Annie Lennox song. But it’s a great song and video, so why not indulge in the double-dipping? After all, this is Bonnywood, where everything old is new again…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Poetry and music are two of the finer things in life, yes? I hope you and Pretty had a swell holiday and you got lots of face time with the Wee Bairn. Hallelujah, indeed. Or as one of my recurring characters once proclaimed, “Halle Berry Lujah”. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • If memory serves, you weren’t able to play the videos the last time I posted this. I smell a conspiracy. You? Then again, I smell a lot of things that aren’t really there or at least aren’t worth smelling. Such is my life…

      Silliness aside, I am grateful that we have been friends these past years. You always brighten my day with your comments and your humor and your lovely soul…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • You need to watch yourself with that there squeezin’, ‘cuz after that big-ass meal we done had today, they’s enough stuffin’ in my muffin’ that if I let loose with that mess I could flat-out destroy the whole dang town.

      But I wasn’t aimin’ to make ya cry, darlin’. I jes want ya to be happy…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. I don’t know any of the songs and don’t think I ever heard of them in shopping malls. They all sound amazing. The Lindsey Stirling one is unbelievable. Can somebody dance and fiddle at the same time like that?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • I think all of these songs are terrific. And apparently one CAN dance and fiddle at the same time. These folks are so talented, especially compared to me, when the highlight of my skills is managing to remember where my car keys are… 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Sister, we’ve been here for each other, even if we drift from time to time. (Just like siblings!) Despite this nasty year, and the moments when both of us have swung low and felt despondent, we have also risen and grown and kept marching to the beat of our unique little drums. Big hugs and big love.

      Like

      Reply

    • Soul of goodness, eh? I rather like that. Mind if I use that on my business cards?

      You be well, as well. And post more, if I may be so bold. You cook a good blog post, and I’m always hungry… 😉

      Like

      Reply

  17. So many poems to read in all shapes and all sizes
    Taping and wrapping our words together can really surprise us!
    And we all bang our heads in our attempted rhymes
    Failures hitting the rim of the basket 100s of times
    But once in a while we forge ahead bravely
    And a little poesy pops out of our gray matter, god save me.
    While Santa can’t bring all the dream of a great wordsmith‘s skill
    Some writers comes born from the manger with quill
    And a virgin had a kid, Jesus Christ wouldn’t you know it
    Sometimes anyone at all can write like a real poet.
    On Keats, on Whitman, on Ginsberg too,
    On Byron, on Shelley, on Poe and on Dr Seuss.
    But there’s a red nosed poet who drinks many a beer
    His name is Brian – and he typed Xmas eve without fear.
    He generously gifted us this blog post and list of fine music
    To raise our holiday spirits he picked and choose-ed.
    Smart as he is he knows poetry when set to a beat
    Is something fun, to which we can all tap our feet.
    So thanks for the present of mind that you gave us
    May you, my friend, rest well and may the good lord save us.
    Oh ye faithful, let’s all pray “God for next year in 2021 hear our collective plea,
    Send that fat fuck home and let J’Biden glue together our divided country.”

    Amen.
    Love you.
    Ilene

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • This is a mighty fine piece of wordsmithing right here, Ilene. So much wit, with a lovely little beat. I really enjoy writing poetry, but I am much better at free verse than the rhyming mess. It feels too limiting, and you know I’m not a fan of limits. The little ditty above just popped into my head, and all was literally said and done in fifteen minutes.

      Side note: It just occurred to me that I might have been using two Ls in your name in previous correspondence. (I’m only mentioning this because I was just about to post this comment when I noticed I had misspelled your name.) My apologies if I have, indeed, slandered you so ungraciously in the past…

      Love ya back,
      B.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Oh, you know I’m the last one to be bothered by mild delays with commenting, as I have personally broken many records with my own delays.

      kd trivia, have to share: I once attended a kd concert at SMU, of all places. (They have a music hall with phenomenal acoustics, by the way. I had no idea until this concert.) She performed one song (I can’t recall the name of it at the moment) where, toward the end, one of the musicians (using an instrument that I could not identify) started making sounds like a lonely wolf howling. Then kd started answering those calls with her own lonesome howling. It was surreal and mesmerizing and beautiful…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  22. Pingback: Dès Vu | rfljenksy – Practicing Simplicity

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.