Muse
She’s living in a song
Somewhere inside a phrase.
A simple soft menagerie
Not breathing till he plays.
She’s safe inside the tune,
No fears can catch her now.Amidst the chords and melodies
Until he takes his bow.
Creation of his mind
Someone he almost knew
Attached by dreams and sealing wax
The fortunes of our youth
Creation of his mind
In search of something true
And if you listen carefully
Someday he’ll sing of you.
She comes to life on stage
Each heartbeat is a note
Given birth to on the page
By the lyrics which he wrote.
And every heartache she endured
And every love she left
Is heard upon the radio
At the listener’s request.
Barbie Dockstader Angell
© 2009-present
Barbie has shared with me that her poem “Muse” was inspired by David LaMotte’s song “Janey” from his album Corners—you can hear the song at this link; in addition, the drawing that accompanies it—which is one of my favorites of all her great illustrations—was inspired by David LaMotte’s song “S.S. Bathtub” from his album of the same name.
You’ll be hearing a lot more about David LaMotte in the next week & change here on Robert Frost’s Banjo. Barbie is writing a post about Mr LaMotte that will appear on Thursday in support of one of his current projects, a children’s book based on his poem, “White Flour.” This is a really worthwhile endeavor, & I encourage you to check out the project’s Kickstarter page & also stay tuned forBarbie’s more in-depth write up this Thursday!
I may have left the sun behind but it is good to be back in the land of decent wifi in order to catch up with some of my favourite blogs - and someone who are rapidly becoming one of my favourite poets. Looking forward to those upcoming posts.
ReplyDeleteI think "Muse" could be set to music too - it has a cadence that would make for good song lyrics (I could hear them as lyrics). I love the poem, and the opening lines in particular were wonderful and pulled me right into the world of phrase and song.
ReplyDeletealan, oh thank you!....with lovely compliments like that you're rapidly becoming my favorite reader. let's not tell anyone though, people might get jealous. :)
ReplyDeletehkatz, thank you so very much. i am learning to play guitar right now. quite a few of my rhyming poems have been turned into songs, and i've always felt that was a possibility for this piece. i thought it was just me since i knew it was written about a song. thanks again. :)
Hi Alan, HKatz, & Barbie
ReplyDeleteAlan: Thanks so much--one of my favorite poets & one of my favorite people!
HKatz: Yes, I agree on the music observation; & yes, it is a delightful poem in its own right!
Barbie: Thanks again, my friend, for your presence here :)