The Arcade Fire Funeral Memory

A band called The Arcade Fire came out with Funeral in 2004, one of my all-time favorite albums. This is my tribute to the music and the memories it elicits. One section for each song (10), but they flow as one.

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

 

A golden hymn

tripping over asphalt

turns and twists

black pools spotted like eyes,

winding wavy ovals

into parked flow streams,

remembrance of green belts.

 

Change my lead to gold

and grow higher,

sleep in my head

like a day grown dim.

 

Trace the colors,

trace the inside

of a voice sung

in sunken memory,

like the wind

pushing sound from light leaves

traces my ears inside the lines

and pushes me back to her outline,

her shadow discolored in black,

stars I strain to see at night.

 

Not envy but empty

chords recreate memory, solo

records a tribute to time gone,

a part from her sea,

land locked and dehydrating,

withering like a rainy day

to green dust.

 

Neighborhood #1 (Laika)

 

Steady notes play on monotones

and she is all I see

as my smooth peak

lowers in recollection.

 

Une Annee Sans Lumiere

 

Shadows of sight sink

and swim in the dim lake

of memory collections.

 

A vision of a rock steady

I sit and watch and waste.

 

Aura glinted my green eyes,

a slow spectacle of curved vision

and remains today a spark

of curiosity and pining for returns.

 

Through music.

Through an image.

Anything.

I am always there.

 

Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

 

Take this small splice of time

and stretch its sides.

 

Incase the liquid in glass,

form the tracing flies

and molding puffy white

clouds shrunken in a mid-March sky.

 

Raise a glass in magnification

and slumber

beside the comfort of such purity.

 

Neighborhood #4 (Kettles)

Sooth me with Susan’s voice,

her trailing slurred speech,

the pitch of her wings through wind,

the tone of bright eyes,

dark brunet and sympathetic.

 

Slow and smooth motions

of eye lids blinking dark screens,

sleight motions of straight lines

from my sight to her

that stay an eye’s length away.

 

Her sharpened fire cuts the black night,

and boils my chest to hot water

that singes my veins to a rolling boil.

 

The heat spews steam like kettles

through my thoughts in saunas

and drowns the sound of their form.

 

But I blistered and calloused

and live in dead skin cells,

and any day could come to be

again, she will come to me

again, I will speak and shield her heat.

 

Crown Of Love

 

Susan, if you want me, please,

forgive me for not saying

anything when you were with me.

 

I strummed my strings and found

an empty sound,

an ache of anxiety waking me

in nervous sweaty sheets covering like regret.

 

Wake Up

 

An older sight,

torn up and colder,

has more nostalgia

for a rusting memory.

 

Tell me it’s a lie

and I’ll adjust.

 

Dancing pictures

spotty and slurring

like an intoxication

of endorphins.

 

Haiti

 

Smooth water dripping down streams

in flows of clear reflections,

a playful sunlight curtaining off creek beds

and swerving bright uncolored spots

around my instinct and sight.

 

A sunny day in mid-March

sits on a rusting rock,

watches and wastes

my sight away to memory.

 

Calmed in slight moments pictured and shuttered,

I caught a slim photograph captured and without many burns.

 

Rebellion (Lies)

 

I close my lying eyes to dream and be saved by night,

a progression like water back to a river mouth,

every time I close in a dream slips through a crack

broken by my steady faults and sulkily unrepaired.

 

Without water I think and dream

in solitude and singularities,

a sight of someone I think I would love,

memory of near perfect days

hid underneath the covers.

 

In The Backseat

 

The ending and hopeful progression

to another high note.

Author's Note

I wrote this while listening to the CD, and each section I wrote while listening to that specific song. If you haven't heard the CD, well, I would suggest you buy/download it, as it was up for alternative album of the year at the Grammy's and has some really profound lyrics. I actually just added the first and ninth songs to my playlist on my homepage (the two that especially inspired me to write this), so give them a listen and see whether that affects the way you read the poem.

It's long, is it too long? Do the sections flow well? What suggestions would you make to smooth it out, if any? Help me on this one, I'm quite interested in its development.

Reviews

[Kelly Scheppers]

Travis, I'm not familiar with the CD to make a constructive comment, but if you wrote this while listening to it...that, in itself, is very impressive!

To be perfectly honest with you, I shy away from lengthy reads....I typically try to write at a minimum, so not to divert the reader's eyes to the bottom of the page. But that's just me. You do what works best for YOU!

Your content is always striking to me, and I believe you are quite gifted!

My best,
Kelly

[Lydia]

This is interesting, beautiful, and your transitions are smooth and work well.

Very nice.

[[untitled]]

Well travis, there is no question about the flow of this, it is brilliant! Are these your words or are they pieces of the bands work? This would be good to know. If you put this together as a tribute in your own words then you have done a wonderful job, if not, you have still done a terrific job of collation, which isn't easy. These are indeed profound words and each stanza compliments the next. You might like to check out M@ lyrics for "Political Thrill" they are featured on his profile along with the disc track...I think you might like it.
Cheers,
Helen :-)

[L.G. Knight]

Too long? Maybe.... but the sescriptiveness really just rocks... You have imagery in here that is just awesome.... I don't know the bad or any of the songs so I didn't get much of the meaning of the poem but the imagery held me captive... Great Job!

~Frances~

it's almost like a concept poem instead of a concept album :) I like it, it really works, most of the transitions from the songs are great- purity to soothing, the endorphines to water, the photograph part to the closed eyes... it's all good stuff, if you took away the titles I'd probably weave my own storyline and take it all as one poem (but don't, I like it the way it is!) I love this part:
Tell me it's a lie
and I'll adjust.

Another great one from you! You're not just on a roll- you've got the whole bakery up there somewhere! :) which is great, :) well done naturally :) xx

[DarkIriswriter]

I am sorry I can't relate to the song but I am up to trying new things.Your imagery and details are splendid and have a sense of longing.Music can place you to remember times in your life of strength and love.You are gifted in the poetic department and a talent in writing.Keep up writing poetry and express your self always.

Sara

[James K. Blaylock]

Wow, what a wonderful idea, man. I too am a huge fan of The Arcade Fire, and this piece is just awesome!

jkb

[Kasey Klein]

It's a fine tribute.

I never heard of them. My hearing's on the way out.

Seems everyone gets a grammy.