Linda's Literary Home

Tag: alternative music

  • Original Song:  “River Spirit” and Prose Commentary

    Image: “Whitewater River Songs – Album Cover” Photo by Ron W. G.

    Original Song:  “River Spirit” and Prose Commentary

    I wrote “River Spirit” circa 1980 then made a homemade recording of it around 20 around 2004.  In 2023, my husband Ron—whom I call “My Sweet Ron”—created the video featuring his own photos and videos selections along with the song.  

    Introduction to and Lyric of “River Spirit”

    The lyric of “River Spirit” plays out in four stanzas of tercets, with one couplet appearing as the second stanza.  It sports no traditional rime-scheme but does offer one set of perfect rime in “hand/sand” in the second and third lines.  Other slant—or more accurately ghost rimes—appear in “water/before” in the couplet.

    Ghost rimes also make an appearance with “bed/edge” and “changes/images.”  The time frame begins in spring, as the singer begins to report what she sees along the river after the cold hard season of winter has given way to the warmth of spring.

    The theme of the song is the mystery the singer feels at seeing that the landscape along the river has been radically transformed from what she had observed during the summer before this transforming winter had its sway.  The singer poses questions about how the trees got uprooted and the path along the river has shifted, as even the stones are taking on new patterns.

    The singer then announces what she had thought to be the agent of the transformations; however, she is ultimately revealing—in the title—that what she “guessed” back in the day, she now knows to be the work of the Divine Reality, the “River Spirit”—or God (see “Names for the Ineffable God”).

    (Please note:  Dr. Samuel Johnson introduced the form “rhyme” into English in the 18th century, mistakenly thinking that the term was a Greek derivative of “rythmos.”  Thus “rhyme” is an etymological error. For my explanation for using only the original form “rime,” please see “Rime vs Rhyme: Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Error.”)

    River Spirit

    Every spring along the Whitewater River
    I saw that some mysterious hand
    Had rearranged the rocks and sand.

    The path I followed the summer before
    Was slipping off into the water.
    I could not figure out whose force
    Could drive that water among the reeds
    & shift the river in its bed

    Whose muscles uprooted those trees?
    Whose fingers patterned those stones
    Along the edge?  

    I guessed only that the spring thaw
    Conjured up the changes
    In those sleeping river images.

    Commentary on “River Spirit”

    The time frame is spring, as the singer begins to muse on what she observes along the river after the cold, hard season of winter has given way to the warmth of spring.  Her earlier guess about that riverbank rearrangement has now become an article of faith, and she proclaims in the title the answer to her earlier inquiry.

    First Movement:  The Hand of Mystery

    Every spring along the Whitewater River
    I saw that some mysterious hand
    Had rearranged the rocks and sand.

    The singing narrator launches right into her story by making the claim that she observed a change in the pattern of stones and sand along the river’s edge, and she make this observation “every spring.”  She had thus a recollection of having experiences these changes many times.

    She colorfully attributes those rearrangements to “some mysterious hand.”  At this point, it may sound a bit odd that a river walker would think a hand had been involved in what went on along the riverbank in her absence.

    Second Movement:  River Features Shifting

    The path I followed the summer before
    Was slipping off into the water.

    After setting the stage for mystery and rearrangement of river features, the singer offers a very specific change.  She had walk along a path during the preceding summer, and now that path simply veered off into the river water.  Such a change would likely be quite jarring for the hiker, who would necessarily be obliged to alter her walking pattern.

    Third Movement:  Puzzling over the Changes 

    I could not figure out whose force
    Could drive that water among the reeds
    & shift the river in its bed

    The singer now inserts her puzzlement.  She becomes curious as to how such changes could have occurred.  She sees that the river has now shifted its course, plunging into the reeds along the bank.

    The mere fact of the river shifting “in its bed” seems Herculean in prospect.  The river is such a large body of moving water that the notion of it shifting surely requires a force that strikes the singer an unimaginable at this point.

    Fourth Movement:  Who Made Those Changes?

    Whose muscles uprooted those trees?
    Whose fingers patterned those stones
    Along the edge?  

    The singer then again adds more specificity to her inquiry.  She sees that trees have been “uprooted,” and she observes that the stones along the river’s edge have been rearranged in a different pattern from the summer before.

    Again, she colorfully attributes those “changes” to a seemingly human agency of “muscles” and “fingers.”  But behind those specific agents must lie some metaphysical force that at this point the singer cannot name, cannot even offer a guess about.

    Fifth Movement:  Guessing at the Conjuring

    I guessed only that the spring thaw
    Conjured up the changes
    In those sleeping river images.

    Now the singer offers what she thought to be an answer to her inquiry: Well, it was likely that not any hands, muscles, or fingers enforced all of these changes; it was simply the process of thawing out from the ice during the warming movements brought on by spring.

    Sure, that’s it: the spring movements of thawing influenced those inert river features to alter themselves into differing patterns from the summer before.  What else could it be?  But the singer is understating what she really believes now.  She “guessed” about the “spring thaw”—but that was then, this is now.

    Thus the singer through anthropomorphic images of hands, muscles, fingers has proclaimed that a humanlike power has, in fact, mades these changes.  Not an actual human being on its own however.  But some power that retains in its Being the image of the human form, power,  and ingenuity.

    Simply, the title of the lyric has already stated what the singer pretends to guess about as she unfurls the song:  God (as the “River Spirit”) has performed His magic on these “sleeping river images.” God has “conjured up” those alterations in those river images as they moved from a frozen, winter sleep to vital spring time awakening.

  • Original Song:  “I Wonder if You Ever Think of Me” and Commentary

    Image:  “Winter Melancholy” Irca & Jacky K.

    Original Song:  “I Wonder if You Ever Think of Me” and Commentary

    I wrote this song about 40 years ago, made a homemade studio recording of it about 20 years ago.  Recently, my husband Ron created a video using his own photos and videos selections featuring the song.  

    Introduction, the Lyric, and the Video

    The lyric of “I Wonder if You Ever Think of Me” displays in four cinquains and one single line, which concludes the lyric by repeating the chorus-like line, transforming the title from wondering to knowing.  The time frame runs from winter to the beginning of spring, with the singer signaling “snow” in the opening line and concluding with winter having turned to spring.

    The song follows a lost-love theme, which therefore relies on melancholic images such as “gray sky” in the opening cinquain, “bare branch” in the second, “wind is blowing cold” in the third, “empty house” in the final stanza.  Despite the theme of melancholy and the lost-love subject, the rendition maintains a rather fast paced rhythm, which allows room for interpretation regarding the depth of the sorrow that appears to be elucidated.

    I Wonder if You Ever Think of Me

    Now the snow is on the ground.
    I walk through the yard.
    Your footsteps I can’t find.
    Gray sky is pressing me down,
    And I wonder if you ever think of me.

    Light through my window comes late.
    I stand and I watch
    Bare branch against the sky.
    I take a walk down by the bridge,
    And I wonder if you ever think of me.

    Outside the wind is blowing cold.
    My heart beats fast
    To think you may be near.
    I walk back to my bed,
    And I wonder if you ever think of me.

    Night turns to day, winter to spring.
    I walk down the road,
    My dog my only friend.
    I walk back to the empty house,
    And I guess I know you never think of me.

    I guess I know you never think of me.

    Commentary on “I Wonder if You Ever Think of Me”

    What may at first blush seem to be a “lost-love” theme filled with sorrow and foreboding can be understood in actuality as quite the opposite—an affirmation of the efficacy of musing, ruminating, and clear-eyed observation.

    First Cinquain:  Beginning a Winter Tale 

    Now the snow is on the ground.
    I walk through the yard.
    Your footsteps I can’t find.
    Gray sky is pressing me down,
    And I wonder if you ever think of me.

    The singer begins to set the stage by revealing the season of the year in which she is making her musing.  “Snow” likely says, it is winter time.  A cold beginning foreshadows the mood of the piece as the singer wonders if the addressee ever thinks of her. Before revealing what she is wondering, she adds two details that set her glum mood. 

    The sky is gray and causing her mood to be low and likely sad, but more likely the detail responsible for her mood is that she cannot see the footprints of the addressee in the snow. That a natural phenomenon of the gray sky accompanying the lack of footprints of a likely lost loved one is wholly understandable.  Human emotion often tinges the nature of  things surrounding it.

    Second Cinquain: Bare Branch and Gray Sky Compound the Melancholy

    Light through my window comes late.
    I stand and I watch
    Bare branch against the sky.
    I take a walk down by the bridge,
    And I wonder if you ever think of me.

    The singer then reveals that she is looking out a window and the sun seems to have delayed its arrival that morning, as it is coming late.  She continues to stand at the window looking out at the winter branches on the trees; they are, of course, bare, having experienced the autumn season that preceded the current time frame.  The “bare branch” is set “against the sky,” revealing another detail of the melancholy which the singer is experiencing.  Bare branches are not considered to be as beautiful as branches full of leaves as in spring and summer.  

    It has already been revealed that the sky is “gray,” and thus the coupling a gray sky and bare branch work together the compound the melancholy mood of the singer.  The singer is then on the move; she walks down to the bridge.  She then repeats the chant-like refrain of wondering if the addressee thinks of her.  Likely the walk was intended to mitigate the melancholy of her wondering, but it has not helped thus she repeats her refrain.

    Third Cinquain:  A Fantastic Interlude

    Outside the wind is blowing cold.
    My heart beats fast
    To think you may be near.
    I walk back to my bed,
    And I wonder if you ever think of me.

    Instead of supplying any detail of the walk back to her house, the singer just suddenly places herself there as she notices that a cold wind is rustling “outside.”  The singer’s continued attempt to mitigate her painful wondering causes her mind to become jerked about, leaving out details that her listeners might want to have as they try to follow her narrative. 

    Again, the speaker adds an important detail that remains otherworldly; her heart begins to beat fast because the thought has arisen that, in fact, the addressee may actually “be near”—not just in her thought but in physical reality.  But instead of rushing to window to look to see if that nearness is likely, she simply “walk[s] back to [her] bed.”  Again, her refrain becomes dominant as she “wonder[s] if [the addressee] ever thinks of [her].”

    Fourth Cinquain:  Winter Bleeds into Spring

    Night turns to day, winter to spring.
    I walk down the road,
    My dog my only friend.
    I walk back to the empty house,
    And I guess I know you never think of me.

    Quite a bit of time has passed from the time frame of the first three cinquains; it is now spring.  But the singer conflates the changing of the season with nighttime turning to daytime.  Her mind is on the passage of time.  Time is supposed to possess a healing power.  Observing the changing of temporal phenomena may become part of the healing process.   

    But now the singer reveals that she is on the move again; this time she is simply taking a walk “down the road” and she is accompanied by her dog.  She confides that her dog is her “only friend.”  Thus her listener can be assured that she is still alone, still missing the addressee, even before she reveals that her house is still empty.  Again, the refrain of wondering if the addressee thinks of her becomes a final or near final expression.  She has continued to wonder as she wandered from winter to spring, as night becomes day, as she strolls about with or without her dog friend, and as she has continued to observe the things around her.

    Final Single Line:  The Return of Harmony and Balance

    I guess I know you never think of me.

    The final single line reveals that the singer has reached a conclusion.  She now knows that the addressee does not ever think of her.  She does not reveal explicitly how she knows that, but she has made it clear the she has cogitated on the issue for at least a whole season.  She began in winter time observing the absence of the addresses by the absence of footprints in the snow. She strolled through the yard, she strolled down the bridge, and she stood at her window watching as night turned to day and one season bled into another.

    The listener can then easily assume that as the singer did all of these things, she was musing, turning over in her mind details about the relationship with the addressee.  Thus with all of this musing and cogitation, she has reached the conclusive answer to the question, and it is no, the addressee never thinks of her. 

    The fast pace of the song reveals a certain mood of affirmation despite the melancholy that many of the images impart.  The singer has therefore not composed a dirge but a hymn to the importance of musing, cogitation, and observation.  The human heart may be persuaded to lighten if the mind of the observer remains focused on achieving balance and harmony. 

  • Original Song:  “Astral Mother” with Prose Commentary

    Image: Mommy and Me – Photo by Ron W. G.

    Original Song:  “Astral Mother” with Prose Commentary

    This song is dedicated to my beautiful mother, Helen Richardson, whose soul left the physical planet Earth at the age of 58 and now resides in the astral world.  By faith and deep love, I visit her there from time to time.

    Introduction with Text of “Astral Mother”

    My original song, “Astral Mother,” plays out in three verse-movements and two chorus-movements.  A traditional verse is a unified set of lines—often four but through innovation the number is not consistent.

    Thus, a verse-movement may be any number of lines or stanzas because the emphasis in on the theme of the movement.  A movement depends upon theme rather than number of lines or stanzas.

    On the astral plane, souls have shed their bodies of chemicals and dust and reside in bodies of light.  Although the physical body is also made fundamentally of light, the astral body is perceived as light more easily than the “mud” covering the soul on the earthly plane.

    After visiting my mother on the astral plane, I bring back images, ideas, and thoughts that I dedicate to her in poems and songs.  The text of the song follows, and you are welcome to listen to the song on SoundCloud.

    Astral Mother

    In memoriam:
    Helen Richardson
    June 27, 1923 — September 5, 1981

    for your beautiful soul

    You are waiting now . . .
    A bright star light
    In the astral world

    You have shed the mud
    That covers the soul
    On the earthly plane . . . —

    Where you were my mother, and I was your child
    You were my mother, and I was your child . . . 

    You are watching for me . . .
    To catch my beam
    In the astral world

    We will live again
    The love we lived
    On the earthly plane . . . —

    Where you were my mother, and I was your child
    You were my mother, and I was your child . . .

    We will understand the Spirit-made plan . . .
    That kept us a while . . .
    In this earthly world . . . —

    Where you were my mother, and I was your child
    You were my mother, and I was your child . . .

    O, my Divine Mother, make me Thy Divine Child!
    O, my Divine Mother, make me Thy Divine Child!

    Commentary on “Astral Mother”

    A daughter addresses her mother who has departed the earth and now resides in the astral world.  Through faith and divine guidance, the daughter visits the mother and creates a tribute to her mother’s beautiful soul of light

    First Verse-Movement:  Living as Light in the Astral World

    You are waiting now . . .
    A bright star light
    In the astral world

    You have shed the mud
    That covers the soul
    On the earthly plane . . . —

    From the earthly plane of existence, the singer/narrator is addressing a loved one who is residing on the astral plane of existence.  

    The soul of the departed loved one is now existing in her astral/causal bodies—where the soul continues without its physical encasement.  Paramahansa Yogananda explains this phenomenon:

    astral body. Man’s subtle body of light, prana or lifetrons; the second of three sheaths that successively encase the soul: the causal body (q.v.), the astral body, and the physical body. The powers of the astral body enliven the physical body, much as electricity illumines a bulb. 

    The astral body has nineteen elements: intelligence, ego, feeling, mind (sense consciousness); five instruments of knowledge (the sensory powers within the physical organs of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch); five instruments of action (the executive powers in the physical instruments of procreation, excretion, speech, locomotion, and the exercise of manual skill); and five instruments of life force that perform the functions of circulation, metabolization, assimilation, crystallization, and elimination.

    The singer/narrator affirms that her loved one—her belovèd mother—is now “waiting” in her body of light as it exists on the astral plane. The singer/narrator in the second part of the movement refers to the physical body as “mud” which the astral mother has now “shed.”  The physical body encases the soul on the earthly plane of existence.

    The physical body may be metaphorically referred to as “mud” after the Biblical description of the human body:

    In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (KJV Genesis 3:19)

    But after the soul leaves that physical encasement, it continues its existence in the two other bodies—astral and causal—on the astral plane where it is perceived only as light. Thus, the daughter/speaker has perceived her mother as a body of light, which she designates metaphorically as “a bright star light.”

    Second Verse-Movement:  Waiting to Spot a Familiar Dot of Light

    You are watching for me . . .
    To catch my beam
    In the astral world

    We will live again
    The love we lived
    On the earthly plane . . . —

    The singer/narrator then affirms that the astral mother is waiting for her daughter to join her on the astral plane.  The daughter will become a “beam” of light after she leaves her own physical encasement, entering the “astral world.”

    The singer/narrator then affirms that the mother and daughter will experience that same love that they shared when they were both on the earth together.   The “lived” love and they continue to live that love, but after they both are in the same level of existence, they are likely to recognize and have a deeper level of awareness of that love.

    Third Verse-Movement:  Understanding and Appreciating Love and Light

    We will understand the Spirit-made plan . . .
    That kept us a while . . .
    In this earthly world . . . —

    The singer/narrator finally affirms that after the mother and daughter are reunited, for however briefly that reunion might exist, they will understand more about the divine plan that God has for them.

    They were both maintained on the earth planet for while; they no doubt had questions about the meaning of life and all of its vicissitudes.  The singer/narrator predicts that after entering the astral plane, both she and her mother will understand more about meaning and purpose then they had before.

    Experience is great teacher; and God puts His children in positions from which they may learn what they need in order to meet their karmic demands. The singer/narrator holds great faith that she and her mother on the path that leads to the ultimate enlightenment of union with the Divine.

    Chorus-Movement 1:  A Simple Statement of Fact

    Where you were my mother, and I was your child
    You were my mother, and I was your child . . .

    In the first chorus, the singer/narrator simply states the fact that the addressee in the song was the singer’s mother, and the singer was the child of the mother.   On the earth plane, they were mother and daughter.

    The simplicity of the statement may be misleading.  This simple fact is, however, very important.  On the earth plane, they were mother and daughter, but on the astral plane they are only two individual souls that are children of the One Father-Mother-God.

    The mother/daughter relationship on earth is likely quite a different one from that relationship as two individual souls on the astral plane.  Despite that obvious fact, the important fact to remember is that love exists between the two; it existed on earth and it will exist in the astral world.

    Chorus-Movement 2:  A Prayer-Chant to the Divine Mother

    O, my Divine Mother, make me Thy Divine Child!
    O, my Divine Mother, make me Thy Divine Child!

    The momentousness of the shift from the earth relationship of mother/daughter to Divine Mother/Divine Child cannot be overstated.  

    By ending with a chant-like prayer, the singer/narrator affirms that through the love relationship between earth mother and daughter, she has come to understand that both mother and daughter are children of the Divine Reality (God).

    And the singer/narrator then supplicates to God as Divine Mother to help her realize her soul as that “Divine Child” that she is.  The same supplication is offered on behalf of the astral mother, whom the singer/narrator has been addressing.

    Both former earth mother and earth daughter are children of the Divine, and they both must one day come to realize that relationship to the Divine—and the singer/narrator prays for that to happen.

  • Original Song:  “These Letters” with Prose Commentary

    Image:  Letters  – Photo by Ron W. G.

    Original Song:  “These Letters” with Prose Commentary

    My original song “These Letters” is a rather uncategorizable love song:  it does not exactly fit into the lost love category, nor does it fit into the romantic, idealism of most love songs.

    Introduction and Lyric of “These Letters”

    The singer and the individual addressed in the song have apparently had a friendly, loving relationship in the past—even likely lived together experiencing the life that the singer suggests with images in the song.  However, the addressee at the time of the song remains at some distance from the singer.   The fact that they have been exchanging letters reveals that a spacial distance exists between the two parties.

    The singer does not reveal the reason for the two being apart, but the fact that she hopes the addressee will return to her leaves open the question for the addressee’s departure and even whether the addressee will ever return.  The singer expresses the wish and hope that the addressee will return, and by that expression of that wish/hope, she is implying that the addressee many not ever return.

    Interestingly, the mention of being “far apart” is not clear that the singer is referring only to distance in miles, but it is obvious that a spacial distance exists because of the very title of the song.  The song cannot be considered a “lost love” song because the singer expresses her love for the distant individual and that she hopes the addressee will return to her.  Whether the two reunite remains a mystery because the theme of the song is simply that letters are not sufficient to maintain a close relationship.

    These Letters

    First Verse

    Here I sit with knitting needles
    Winter drawing near.
    Mind on fire with old desire
    Wishing you were here.
    So I’ll make this sweater
    To send to you
    With the love that’s in my heart
    And I’ll tell you that I long for you
    ‘Cause we’re so far apart.

    Second Verse

    The wine in the cellar gets better and better.
    I wish you could taste some with me.
    I try not to show
    The young plants as they grow
    How empty and sad I can be.
    The tomato vines hung so full this year
    I wish you had been here to see.
    I’ll send you some pictures and strawberry jam
    And my hopes that you’ll come back to me.

    Chorus

    These letters can’t take your place, my Love.
    I hope that you come back to me.
    No, these letters can’t take your place, my Love.
    I hope that you come back to me.

    Commentary on “These Letters”

    Because the title of the song is “These Letters,” the singer is placing great emphasis on that form of writing.  But she is letting the recipient of her letters know that she finds such correspondence insufficient to maintain their relationship.  While letters cannot take the place of the missing individual, she singer adds her hope their the addressee will return to their her and their life together.

    First Verse:   A Distant Relationship

    Here I sit with knitting needles
    Winter drawing near.
    Mind on fire with old desire
    Wishing you were here.
    So I’ll make this sweater
    To send to you
    With the love that’s in my heart
    And I’ll tell you that I long for you
    ‘Cause we’re so far apart.

    The singer begins by noting where she is and suggesting what she is doing:  she is sitting somewhere, likely in her home, with a pair of “knitting needles.”   She then alerts the addressee and her listeners to the fact that the winter season is coming soon.

    The fact that the coldest season is nearly upon her prompts her to reveal the reason for her sitting with knitting needles:  she is knitting a sweater for the individual, whom she is addressing in the song.  She then tells the individual that she is sending the sweater to him/her.  She adds the unexpected element that she will also be sending love the person.  

    Love resides in her heart for the person she is addressing, and she wishes they were not “so far apart.”  She reports that she will tell the individual that she “long[s] for [the individual]” because of the vast separation.

    Second Verse:  Hopes for Return

    The wine in the cellar gets better and better.
    I wish you could taste some with me.
    I try not to show
    The young plants as they grow
    How empty and sad I can be.
    The tomato vines hung so full this year
    I wish you had been here to see.
    I’ll send you some pictures and strawberry jam
    And my hopes that you’ll come back to me.

    The singer then reveals that she and the individual whom she is addressing have made wine together.  Their wine gets “better and better” as it rests in the cellar.   This set of imagery “wine” and “cellar” implies that the singer and the individual reside in the country, in a bucolic setting as opposed to city living, where cellars are not common, nor is wine-making.

    More evidence for the country living is that the singer next mentions the growing of the grapes for the wine, which likely represent other plants that the singer and her friend have formerly grown together.

    Now that she and the individual have distance between them, she singer is “empty and sad,” but as the cultivates the garden, she attempts to put on a happier face for the sake of the plants, as plants can be sensitive to the mood of their caretaker.

    She then tells her friend that the tomato harvest was especially good this year.  And again she expresses the wish that her friend had been there to experience those full-hanging tomato vines.  The singer then alerts her friend that she will send the individual pictures—likely images of those garden plants, particularly the tomatoes that grew so abundantly.  

    In addition to the pictures, she will send “strawberry jam”—another indication that the singer lives out in the country where she has the space to grow strawberries.  And again, this singer expresses “hopes”—this time, somewhat more than a mere “wish”—that the individual will return to the singer.

    Chorus:  What Letters Cannot Do

    These letters can’t take your place, my Love.
    I hope that you come back to me.
    No, these letters can’t take your place, my Love.
    I hope that you come back to me.

    The chorus which is offered only twice expresses the fact that the two individuals have been exchanging letters.   The singer makes her feelings known that letters are not sufficient to maintain the loving relationship that the two had earlier experienced.

    The chorus itself even repeats the fact that the letters are not enough.  The singer remains hopeful that the now distant former friend and likely housemate will return to her and their life together.

  • Original Song: “When Morning Looms” with Prose Commentary

    Image:  Frost on Fence Post –  Idaho Farm

    Original Song: “When Morning Looms” with Prose Commentary

    If a poet/songwriter employs second person singular, s/he is often addressing not another person but her/himself.  Songs are often less dense than poems with a few exceptions; I suggest this one is an exception.

    Introduction and Text of “When Morning Looms”

    The singing of birds in the morning may herald a day of remembering.  Glorious angels surround the seat of contemplation where one who remembers plies her musings.   The thought of water always seeking, seeking its own level will remind the pure brain of honesty, forthrightness, and delivery from evil. 

    Most songs remain dull outposts of themselves as they pander, exaggerate, and often obliterate inspiration in favor of calumny.  Yet poems that are transformed into songs may hold a certain magic, if only for the singer/poet. 

    This song/poem testifies against the “Quacker” who would not only devalue but attempt to obliterate the sun that shines on the flock of lies that quackers often invent in order to elevate their stature.  Perennially, Satan remains ready to command: some will always follow, while others never will.

    When Morning Looms

    “And all the time she didn’t pay the least attention to Quacker . . . ” —Old Granny Fox, Thornton W. Burgess

    Chorus

    There’s nothing clouds can shake
    To break the jealous ties
    The frost in on the fence post
    The water is still wise

    Verse 1

    When morning looms
    And the pepper is hot
    The turtle will be bright
    But the sturgeon will not
    After butterflies spill free
    And the yellow turns to gold
    The quirky will stay young
    The evil will grow old

    Verse 2

    Nothing to see here, Quacker
    Nothing to hear at all
    The moss grows on the wrong side
    While the bitter reaps the fall
    You’ve raked the scent of verses
    And burned them in your nose
    And dumped your figs on stories
    That vindicate the rose

    Verse 3

    The wisdom of the ages
    Prevails without a brain
    But nuts and loons and titmice
    Disturb the worn terrain
    Nobody gives a damn about
    A song sung by a saint
    And plucky hens and misanthropes
    Still spin their days drug-dazed

    Verse 4

    O hurry sun and come to all
    Who wither in the rain
    And spray your rays to badger them
    Who lack a civil brain
    When morning looms
    And the pepper turns to dawn
    The turtle will sing on
    But the sturgeon will be gone

    To listen to the song, please visit “When Morning Looms” at SoundCloud.

    Prose Commentary on “When Morning Looms”

    The turtle swims in the wisdom of water.  The sturgeon swims as a prisoner of water.  The turtle loves the sturgeon but is not fooled by their differences.  The sturgeon cannot even perceive the difference or what they mean.

    The metaphorical, almost fable-like, engagement of literary devices renders this song somewhat more dense than most songs—perhaps even more dense than most postmodern poems. 

    Chorus:  The Squelch of Ideas

    There’s nothing clouds can shake
    To break the jealous ties
    The frost in on the fence post
    The water is still wise

    The chorus of the song “When Morning Looms” dramatizes the postmodern squelch of ideas that permeate both weather and the common truth that water, which does nothing other than seek its own level, is “wise.”  

    Frost on the fence post is, in fact, just another form of water.  And how long does frost on the fence post last? Until the sun comes up!  Unfortunately, the frost may appear again and again until late into springtime—depending upon the spot on the globe.

    Verse 1: A New Beginning

    When morning looms
    And the pepper is hot
    The turtle will be bright
    But the sturgeon will not
    After butterflies spill free
    And the yellow turns to gold
    The quirky will stay young
    The evil will grow old

    Every morning offers a new beginning for the children of planet Earth.  The sun rises on the innocent and the guilty alike.  The singer of this plaintiff song metaphorically compares her essence to that of a “turtle.”   Also metaphorically, an oppositional “sturgeon” occupies its own level of being.  

    The turtle rests nearer the heavens on the ladder of evolution than the sturgeon—not only poetically but scientifically.  The turtle treads the land, while the sturgeon still breathes through gills—swimming is its only way of locomotion.  

    A turtle might swim as it chooses, but it also walks on the ground. Naturally, the “turtle will be bright,” and the “sturgeon will not.”  The sturgeon will remain water-bound.  No matter how bright the sturgeon might think itself, the fact is that it will remain the prisoner of gills. 

    Not content to concentrate on stations of life as victim/opposer/prisoner in her worldview to turtle/sturgeon, the singer metaphorically sings in “butterflies.”   Butterflies after resting gestationally in the cocoon stage eventually “spill free.” 

    The color “yellow”—which in some venues equals cowardice—turns to “gold,” as the singer notes she has witnessed that “quirky” folks seem to remain youthful, while “the evil” or those who slander and smear others lose their youthful spirit.

    Verse 2:  The Vacuousness of Blather, Bilge, and Poppycock

    Nothing to see here, Quacker
    Nothing to hear at all
    The moss grows on the wrong side
    While the bitter reaps the fall
    You’ve raked the scent of verses
    And burned them in your nose
    And dumped your figs on stories
    That vindicate the rose

    The speaker then accepts the fact that what she has to sing will have no influence on those who will never understand her “quirky” nature.   She now metaphorically names the opposer “Quacker” because for her, all the blathering, bilge, and poppycock she has heard from that quarter is nothing but quacking. 

    The singer/speaker knows and accepts the fact that nothing she can ever say or do will change the position of the sturgeonesque quacking quacker who would always continue to slander and smear, if she would but allow it.   According to the thinking of the singer, the opposer’s bitterness will lead to a reaping of the fall. The opposer’s moss “grows on the wrong side.”  

    The opposer has deliberately and maliciously slandered and smeared the better angels of the world.  The singer/poet muses, creates, sings, and rises above the skank-smoke of earthbound quackery.

    Verse 3: Eternal Passing by the Ethereal

    The wisdom of the ages
    Prevails without a brain
    But nuts and loons and titmice
    Disturb the worn terrain
    Nobody gives a damn about
    A song sung by a saint
    And plucky hens and misanthropes
    Still spend their days drug-dazed

    The opposer gives no time to seeking the ethereal or the eternal.  The singer knows that “the wisdom of the ages” continues despite the pop off platitudes of satan worshipers.   But she also sees that gutter snipes can disturb the landscape and mental environment, even of the wider, natural culture. It still remains common knowledge that saints hold little sway over the hide-bound.  

    Even in the halls of learning and high culture of postmodern society, saints remain passé.  And all common, societal drugs spread their mischief over a large percentage of the population.  Opposer and opposition unite in the spawn of the death cult.

    Verse 4:  The Civil Brain of Self-Sufficiency

    O hurry sun and come to all
    Who wither in the rain
    And spray your rays to badger them
    Who lack a civil brain
    When morning looms
    And the pepper turns to dawn
    The turtle will sing on
    But the sturgeon will be gone

    The singer then calls on the sun to come to those who have been withering in the life-giving rain.  She asks for the giant orb to spray its rays—not necessarily to heal them but to “badger them”—the singer knows that the opposer suffers the indignity of buying into the postmodern, vaccinated pharmaceutical blather. The sun is bad for you—voila! skin cancer!   

    Just a “civil brain” would be sufficient to understand that far from causing disease, the sun is a healing force for all earthly inhabitant—avoid extreme sunburns but take the free vitamin D in moderate doses, like everything else.

    The singer then reprises the first line—mentioning pepper, which was merely “hot” in the opening, but now is turning “to dawn.”  Pepper is an enlivening spice; pepper brings food to life, gives it an enchanting flavor.  You cannot spell pepper without pep.  For this singer, pepper is important, heralding the original notion of the dissension between “turtle”  and “sturgeon.”    

    The turtle/singer moves forward on intuition—swimming in the blessèd, bright realization of soul power that overcomes all darkness in the wise water. The sturgeon will likely lose itself in the muck and muddle that works diligently to keep all sturgeons exactly where they are for the foreseeable slew of incarnations.

  • Original Song: “River of Time” with Commentary

    Image: Whitewater River, Richmond IN  

    Original Song: “River of Time” with Commentary

    My original song “River of Time” is a hymn to my Divine Belovèd, featuring a chorus that functions as a chant.

    Introduction with Text of Lyric “River of Time”

    Because music was my first love that I remember from the earliest age, I have always been attracted by the sounds from inspiring music.  

    I began writing songs seriously around age 32, and I especially enjoy and appreciate my songs that turn into hymns to the Divine Belovèd.  “River of Time” is such a hymn.  

    I am strongly influenced by the Cosmic Chants of my guru (spiritual leader) Paramahansa Yogananda.  Many of my original hymns have a chant-like element—a repetition that takes the minds within or bespeaks some spiritual truth for mental awareness.

    River of Time

    A hymn to my Divine Belovèd

    Verse
    Waiting by the river of time—
    My beloved keeps His rime
    In the sunlight that sings in stars
    The moon will wax in tune

    Verse
    Flowing with the river of time—
    Do you feel the rhythm that glides
    As you sing each lingering verse?
    Your soul will chant in bliss

    Verse
    Once beyond the river of time—
    Where you seek your ultimate rime,
    Where you need to battle no more
    You’ve reached that heavenly shore

    Chorus
    Every moment is light infused  
    Behind the darkness of closed eyes
    Seek no more for all is here
    Nothing more to do or fear

    Video by Carlene Craig

    Commentary on “River of Time”

    The singer/seeker/devotee in this hymn does not directly address her Heavenly Father-God.  She suggests the target of her report in subtle ways by essentially addresses her own self or soul. She sings to remind herself of her goal of soul- or self-realization, unity with the Divine Belovèd.

    First Verse:  Existence on the Physical Plane

    Waiting by the river of time—
    My beloved keeps His rime
    In the sunlight that sings in stars
    The moon will wax in tune

    The singer/devotee exists along a continuum that the human mind and heart often liken metaphorically to a river—a “river of time.”  Time seems to flow, meander, going somewhere.

    Intuition tells the human mind and heart that the soul is moving as on a flowing body of water to somewhere that must be wonderful.

    The beloved who is causing this river to flow displays his wares in light—sunlight and moonlight.  Science tells humanity that sunlight is reflected in the stars, and the moon also reflects that important, life-sustaining orb.

    The singer/devotee implies that her beloved is a poetic artist because he keeps “His rime” visible in the light of the sun and the moon.

    Second Verse:  The Rhythm of Soul Bliss

    Flowing with the river of time—
    Do you feel the rhythm that glides
    As you sing each lingering verse?
    Your soul will chant in bliss

    The singer then states that her soul is, in fact, moving down this metaphorical river.  She poses a rhetorical question of her self to ascertain if she is really sensing the rhythmic sway of the music of her verses.

    As she sings, she has become aware of her soul flowing into its natural state of “bliss.”  The verses that linger in the heart and mind bestow on her a marvelous state of awareness and joy.

    Third Verse:  Transcending Physical Existence

    Once beyond the river of time—
    Where you seek your ultimate rime,
    Where you need to battle no more
    You’ve reached that heavenly shore

    The singer then begins to speculate about the existence to be experienced after transcending the physical level of existence, metaphorically named the “river of time.”  

    Beyond that locus is where the ultimate poetry and music hold sway, where humanity no longer is required to struggle with life’s vicissitudes, trails, and tribulations.  Once the soul has become self-realized, it knows only divine joy and love.

    Chorus:  Moving into the Joy of the Light

    Every moment is light infused  
    Behind the darkness of closed eyes
    Seek no more for all is here
    Nothing more to do or fear

    The singer’s repeated, chant-like chorus is an affirmative statement about what goes on after she closes her eyes to the physical level of existence.

    She need not continue searching for she has arrived at the Goal of life. United with the Divine Belovèd, there is nothing that she will ever have to fear.

    Video:  Whitewater River-Tim Bowman-East Fork of the Whitewater River-near Brownsville IN 

  • Original Song:  “Where You Are”  with Prose Commentary

    Image: Pacific Ocean – August 2015 – Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens – Encinitas CA – Photo by Ron W. G.

    Original Song:  “Where You Are”  with Prose Commentary

    This song “Where You Are” is one of my original compositions. The video accompanying it was created by landscape artist/photographer Ron Grimes.

    Introduction and Text of “Where You Are”

    My original song “Where You Are”is based on a simple premise: the singer is addressing her Divine Belovèd (God), asserting to the Belovèd the desire to be where the Ultimate Loved One is.

    Each verse features rhetorical questions and musings upon the actual location of the Divine Creator.  Because the Creator/Father of all creation is both within creation and outside of creation, the answer to all of the rhetorical questions is, naturally, yes.

    Nevertheless, being where the Divine Belovèd is cannot be the same situation as being where a human friend or beloved is.   Because it seems that God is playing hide and seek with his children, the singer asserts that her soul “soul tugs at the veil hiding You from me.”

    Where You Are

    First Verse

    Are You standing on top of a mountain?
    Are You sitting beside the vast grave sea?
    How can I ever approach You?
    Will You ever just come to me?

    Second Verse

    Are You speaking to me through my loved ones?
    Are You quietly whispering through the silver stars?
    Are You waiting to hear what my songs will sing?
    Do You listen to the rapid beat of my heart?

    Third Verse  

    If I offer You all in my stillness—
    If I silently listen to the hum in my mind—
    If I patiently fast from all my senses—
    Will You break Your vow of silence and just come to me!

    Chorus 

    Where You are is where I long to be.
    I cannot understand where else I could seek.
    My soul tugs at the veil hiding You from me.
    Where You are is where I long to be.

    Video: Linda Sue Grimes performing “Where You Are”  

    SoundCloud:  Linda Sue Grimes performing “Where You Are” 

    Commentary on “Where You Are”

    After much questioning, contemplating, and ultimately meditating, the devotee will find that the soul will remove the veil hiding it from the Over-Soul—the soul’s Creator, the Divine Belovèd, or any of the preferred name for the Ineffable (God).

    First Verse:  “Are You standing on top of a mountain?”

    Are You standing on top of a mountain?
    Are You sitting beside the vast grave sea?
    How can I ever approach You?
    Will You ever just come to me?

    The singer opens with four rhetorical questions to the Divine Reality.  The first two questions reveal earthly locations that are considered sanctuaries of sacredness, holiness, or just ordinary vacation escapes:  mountain tops and sea sides. 

    The next two questions reveal that the devotee is still walking the sacred, devotional path to soul-realization (also known as self-realization or God-realization).  

    Before final liberation, the devotee experiences the separation from her Goal to be a heavy burden.  That burden causes her to wonder if she, in fact, will ever be able to unite with the Creator/Father.

    In her melancholy and sorrowful mourning because of the seeming distance, the devotee often wonders if the Lord will ever appear to her and make her know that she is His own child.   Will she ever be able to attain the Sacred Goal of self-realization and experience unity with her Belovèd Divine Creator?

    Second Verse:  “Are You speaking to me through my loved ones?”

    Are You speaking to me through my loved ones?
    Are You quietly whispering through the silver stars?
    Are You waiting to hear what my songs will sing?
    Do You listen to the rapid beat of my heart?

    In the second verse, the singer/devotee continues with rhetorical questions.  Intuiting the answer yet not knowing the fullness of each answer, she inquires of the Divine Belovèd if He is communicating with her through her family and friends.

    The singer likely is aware that God is speaking to her through everyone she knows and meets.  But without that last step in the process of enlightenment, she does not know exactly what is being said or exactly what all that conversation might ultimately mean to her.

    Thus, she also wonders if the One Who fashioned the “silver stars” may be signaling to her through those heavenly entities.  Again, she likely knows it to be a fact, but that separation continues to prompt questions.  

    The singer wonders if Divine Mother anticipates what she sings in her songs.  She wonders if her musical worship is reaching its intended Goal.

    The singer/devotee often becomes anxious with a rapid heart beat, knowing that that heart beat needs to become calm to achieve stillness.  She therefore wonders if the Creator Divine cares to listen to that rapid heart beat.  And she wonders if the Ultimate Physician will perform some medical heavenly magic to help her still her rapid heart.

    Third Verse:  “If I offer You all in my stillness”

    If I offer You all in my stillness—
    If I silently listen to the hum in my mind—
    If I patiently fast from all my senses—
    Will You break Your vow of silence and just come to me!

    The singer/devotee’s questioning becomes even more intense in the lyric of the final verse.    She has shown that she knows that she must still the rapid beat of her heart, but she also must still all of her senses as she offers her every atom to the Divine Essence.

    The devotee/singer shows awareness that she must listen the divine hum of the cosmic motor, the sacred AUM (Om) sound that upholds all of creation.  She knows that she must remove her attention from worldly things and events and place that attention upon the locus beyond the senses, where the soul resides.

    The singer/devotee remains certain that after she is able to accomplish all that is implied in her questions and musings, the Divine Belovèd Presence will, in fact, “break [that] vow of silence and [ ] come to [her].”

    Chorus:  “Where You are is where I long to be”

    Where You are is where I long to be.
    I cannot understand where else I could seek.
    My soul tugs at the veil hiding You from me.
    Where You are is where I long to be.

    The chorus, instead of offering mere rhetorical questions and musings, makes an affirmative statement:  the singer asserts that she wants to be where her Divine Beloved is.   She reveals her intuition that she cannot find love, peace, fulfillment on the physical, earthly plane.

    The singer/devotee insists that her soul is attempting to rend the cloth of separation from the Divine, as it “tugs at the veil” that keeps her from uniting with the Creator Belovèd. 

    The final line emphasizes as it repeats the important desire: “Where You are is where I long to be.”  The importance of the chorus is demonstrated by its repetition after every verse.

  • Original Songs

    Image: Linda Sue Grimes – Selfie

    Welcome to My Original Songs

    As a life-long creative writer, I have dabbled in many forms: poems, songs, short stories, flash fiction, memoir, and essays that focus on a variety of topics including history and politics, and philosophical issues.  I also create vegetarian/vegan recipes.

    This page is dedicated to providing links to a sampling of my songs; to sample some of my poems, please visit my “Original Poems.”   Other works are forthcoming.

    Thank you for visiting my literary home!  

    Questions, comments, and suggestions offered in good faith are always welcome.

    Original Songs on SoundCloud

    All written and performed by Linda Sue Grimes

    1. Twixt Good and Evil
    2. When Morning Looms
    3. Blue Haired Girl
    4. Sing through Me as I Worship at Thy Sea
    5. Where You Are
    6. Lyn’s Song
    7. River of Time – w/The Yamaha Band
    8. Ron’s Song
    9. Astral Mother
    10. Where You Are Dear – Keyboard
    11. Where You Are Dear – Guitar
    12. Pretty Little Woman
    13. Without the Waves
    14. River Spirit

    Original Songs  

    Videos on YouTube created by Ron Grimes

    1. Paper Mill Bridge Song
    2. Where You Are
    3. Lyn’s Song
    4. Haunted House
    5. Old Forgotten Love
    6. Slipped Away
    7. Down the Road
    8. I Know how the Lord Feels about Me
    9. When Tears Always Flow
    10. I Walk with You
    11. Songs That You Sing
    12. Dreaming of You Again – lyric by Ron Grimes & Linda Sue Grimes

    Videos on YouTube created by Carlene Craig

    1. River of Time – w/guitar
    2. My Girl Darian – written by Carlene Craig, set to music & performed by Linda Sue Grimes

    Original Song with Commentaries

    1. “Dreaming of You Again” with Prose Commentary
    2. “Against” with Prose Commentary
    3. “The Paper Mill Bridge Song” and Prose Commentary
    4. “Where You Are” with Prose Commentary
    5. “River of Time” with Prose Commentary
    6. “When Morning Looms” with Prose Commentary
    7. “These Letters” with Prose Commentary
    8. “Astral Mother” and Prose Commentary
    9. “I Wonder if You Ever Think of Me” and Prose Commentary
    10. “River Spirit” and Prose Commentary
    11. “Twixt Good and Evil” and Prose Commentary