Music Maps

Songs can be a snapshot of a place, a time, a person, but only if you let them be

I need to get out
In to the world again
Because outside
This room
This house
This city
I can hear a thousand new songs
Sung in infinite voices

All the tunes I remember
The lyrics that burn themselves
In to my eyelids so
In moments alone
Lost in melody
I can see the memory
I can see where I was

Shelter
From a band an old flatmate
Graced me with the knowledge of
Because roots music resonated with him
Harmonicas sang as clearly
As language to his ears
He loved music that brought
Identity
Location
To each listener.
For me, that song was
Summer evenings on the west coast
Ireland
Magnificent and sunkissed
Glowing in a red sunset bath
The fjord on fire
Burning down to embers
As the last rays made a pincushion
Of soft cloud
Old Mwaulree
Guarding the inlet
Looming over his kinder
Siblings

Do I Wanna Know
Is a hammerblow
Of stomping feet
Battered upholstery
From jubilant drumming
Drifting party detritus
Bottles on rizla coasters
Jubilant expressions
As the rhythmic pound
Of improvised bass drum
Grows louder
And louder
Floor shaking,
Voices breaking
As from a small Swansea living room
An accapella spectacular bursts forth

Caledonia
Is the song who's hooks
Are hung hardest in my skin
Because in the midst of all
The raucous inebriation
The hazy nights that
Spanned tents, flats, tin sheds and
Open fields
My abiding memory
The gem that reflects light
In to the corners of my recollections
Is hearing the song
Sung by a close friend
About a place I had never been
And knowing that I had to learn the words
If just to get a glimpse of
Where they came from
Because now it had been sung about
It had to be seen.

Reviews

[gram linski]

Music is a powerful thing and your poetry sings, we all have these memories of singing and laughter round campfires, parties, wherever people gather, we will sing,

[barleygirl]

This is a great departure from the usual poems that refer to music or bands or songs. Here you've crafted an original approach. I always love the connection between music & writing, so it's fun to find out which songs get your motor running. The best part is how you describe the feelings & sensations of a song, as much as the lyrical message of it. This does not feel like poetry, actually more like prose, but there's nothing wrong with that (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Such a powerful and amazing poem depicting your progression in music and, like many of us, your questioning of modern com puter generated sounds. There is poassion in this and sadness for a time passed. It flows so fluidly in freeverse the reader is deluged in your message.