His words did roam through lanes of rustic gold, By fields where amber wheat doth kiss the sky, Along the river’s bend, both swift and bold, O’er arches wrought of stone they softly fly.
Through wooded snares and breezes light they sweep, Above the crawfish in their misty play, Each sound ablaze, as if the night to keep, A flame of moonshine gilds the fleeting day.
His phrases dance round lilies of the morn, And spark a gleam within mine eyes to shine, Like candlewood where autumn shades are born— Yet sad to say his wayward soul doth not align.
Beneath the boughs, my heart did strain to hear, His tongue’s dulcet tones, to me now no longer dear.
Bring your toys, play with boats and rings, Bright strings of angels float about cool things. Wake up the sloth in your bonnet; red ribbons Tied to the anchor of drowning load the harbor. Quiet the noise in your brain, solace your neighbor.
String your tunes onto the backs of commands. You have known steady loons to break in memory. Wake up in a drawing room filled with letters. Take responsibility for your own doings. Make apples turn brown in crusty weather.
Do all in gentle rain that keeps the flow. Make haste to relinquish the death handle. Your parents had steel spines and fevered brains Yet their hearts kept time with the astral drum. Squelch the noise in your ear and fly over scum.
Sing songs that spill rivers in the minds of harps. Don’t break the momentum of falling leaves. The floor of each heart is scattered with regrets. Go dumb in the face of disingenuity. Bring a noisy lantern that scrubs flaccid wine.
Sing more songs, compose poetry for the ages. Copy the style but not the brunt of sages. Each balloon that pops drops a bird. Make each crisis sing with loud abandon That the noise in your brain flee to the outskirts.
The Shakespearean speaker presents Orpheus as the embodiment of music’s power, showing how art, particularly music, has the ability to harmonize nature and relieve human suffering through its transformative, calming influence.
Introduction and Text of the “Shakespeare Lyric ‘Orpheus’”
Excerpted from Henry VIII (Act III, Scene 1), this brief lyric distills the ancient myth of Orpheus into a musing on the transformational and consolatory power of music.
The speaker expresses a vision in which art exerts a gentle but irresistible authority over nature itself, bringing harmony where there is chaos, motion where there is stillness, and rest where there is unrest.
The figure of Orpheus becomes less a mythological character than an emblem of art’s highest potential: to reshape the external world and quiet the inward life. I have employed the Orpheus ethos in my plea for more control and better expression in the art of poetry.
“Orpheus” (from Henry VIII – Act III, Scene 1)
Orpheus with his lute made trees And the mountain tops that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing: To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die.
Commentary on “The Shakespeare Lyric ‘Orpheus’”
In this Shakespeare excerpt that functions as a stand-alone poem, the speaker is alluding to the Greek mythological character Orpheus to celebrate music as a force of order, renewal, and inward healing. Orpheus was the god of music and poetry i Greek mythology.
Stanza 1: Music’s Powerful Influence
Orpheus with his lute made trees And the mountain tops that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing: To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring
The speaker opens with a striking assertion of music’s powerful influence over the natural world. The phrasing remains condensed, as though the act of music itself compresses time and causation. Trees and mountain tops do not merely respond; they are “made” or commanded to respond by bowing to the sound of Orphean singing.
This shaping force exerts itself to images of rigidity and lifeless cold. That mountain summits are called to “bow themselves” introduces a paradox: what is fixed becomes responsive, what is cold becomes animate, and what is elevated yields in humility.
The verb “bow” carries a dual resonance. It suggests both submission and grace, implying that nature’s response is not actually coerced but harmonized. The speaker presents music not as domination but as persuasion, a gentle authority that draws all things into alignment. Even the harshest elements—frozen peaks—are softened by sound, indicating that art reaches where physical force cannot.
The hyperbole exerted in these images is astounding, leading not to disbelief but to the famous Romantic assertion by Samuel Taylor Coleridge “that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.” After all, the purpose of exaggeration is only to emphasize a claim, not to make a melodramatic spectacle.
The stanza then shifts from gesture to growth: “plants and flowers / Ever sprung.” The effect is not momentary but continuous, captured in the word “ever.” Music generates an ongoing fertility, a perpetual blossoming that resists decay.
The comparison to “sun and showers” grounds this transformation in natural cycles, yet the phrase “lasting spring” exceeds ordinary seasonal change. Spring, typically transient, becomes permanent under the influence of music. The speaker thus elevates art above nature’s own processes, suggesting that while sun and rain produce life, music sustains it indefinitely.
The imagery moves from rigidity (mountains) to vitality (flowers), tracing a progression from stillness to generative abundance. The speaker’s syntax reinforces this flow, with lines that seem to unfold organically, mirroring the growth they describe. Music becomes both cause and condition of harmony, a principle that unifies disparate elements—earth, air, and life itself.
What emerges is not merely a portrait of Orpheus but an argument about art’s capacity to reconcile opposites: cold and warmth, height and humility, barrenness and fertility. The speaker implies that music achieves what nature alone cannot—a permanence of renewal, a “lasting spring” that suspends the ordinary limits of time and change.
Again, as in most successful art, the tension of the pairs of opposites makes an appearance. As the great Guru Paramahansa Yogananda has explained, the force of Maya, the very cause of the material level of being, works through the pairs of opposites.
Stanza 2: The Universal Influence of Music
Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die.
The second stanza broadens the scope from land to sea, extending the reach of music to “Every thing that heard him play.” The universality is emphatic; nothing remains outside the sphere of music’s influence.
While the first stanza emphasizes growth and animation, the second turns toward quieting and rest. The “billows of the sea,” emblematic of motion and unrest, are personified “h[anging] their heads and then l[ying] by.” The image suggests human beings becoming calm after turbulence, with ceaseless motion transforms into stillness.
The phrase “hung their heads” echoes the earlier “bow themselves,” reinforcing the motif of submission, yet here it carries a more subdued, almost weary connotation. The sea, often a symbol of emotional excess or instability, is brought into repose. The progression from bowing to lying still marks a deepening effect: music does not merely elicit acknowledgment; it also induces tranquility.
The final lines turn inward with even more gravity, shifting from the external world to the human condition: “care and grief of heart.” The speaker identifies these as persistent burdens, analogous to the restless sea.
Music’s power is now psychological and emotional, not merely physical. The phrase “killing care” is striking in its severity; music does not soothe lightly but eradicates distress at its root.
Yet the resolution is nuanced: care and grief either “fall asleep, or hearing, die.” The dual possibility suggests degrees of relief. Sleep implies temporary suspension, while death indicates permanent release. The ambiguity allows for a range of experience—music may offer respite or complete transformation. In either case, it alters the condition of suffering.
The line “In sweet music is such art” functions as a reflective statement, drawing together the stanza’s implications. “Sweet” emphasizes harmony and pleasure, but “art” underscores intention and craft. The speaker presents music as both aesthetic and efficacious, capable of shaping not only perception but feeling itself.
The movement of the stanza—from the vast sea to the inner heart—compresses the scale of influence, suggesting that the same force governs both realms. The calming of waves parallels the quieting of grief, establishing a correspondence between outer and inner worlds. Music becomes a mediating principle, aligning nature and human emotion within a single order of harmony.
The final stanza affirms that art’s highest function lies not merely in delight but in restoration. It brings the restless to rest, the troubled to peace, and in doing so, offers a vision of existence in which discord is not denied but resolved.
In addition to poetry, James Weldon Johnson also composed many songs that have become popular. His bluesy poem/song “Sence You Went Away” features a southern dialect and captures the melancholy that surrounds the individual who has lost a loved one.
Introduction and Text “Sence You Went Away”
James Weldon Johnson’s “Sence You Went Away” creates a speaker/singer who bemoans the loss of a loved one. The poem/song consists of four stanzas, each with the rime scheme AAAB, wherein the final line constitutes the refrain in which the speaker reveals the reason for his melancholy.
The repetition of “seems lak to me” and “sence you went away” emphasizes the pain and sorrow the speaker is experiencing. The refrain becomes a chant-like repetition as he progresses through his report of all that is making him sad. And he is addressing his expressions of sorrow to the individual, who is now absent from his life.
As a poem this works quite well, and as a song it works even more nicely. The poem/song’s use of dialect gives it an authenticity that increases the communication of pain and sorrow. The speaker/singer incorporates and inflicts his sorrow on the world around him, while at the same time making it clear that these transformations are happening within himself.
Sence You Went Away
Seems lak to me de stars don’t shine so bright, Seems lak to me de sun done loss his light, Seems lak to me der’s nothin’ goin’ right, Sence you went away.
Seems lak to me de sky ain’t half so blue, Seems lak to me dat eve’ything wants you, Seems lak to me I don’t know what to do, Sence you went away.
Seems lak to me dat eve’ything is wrong, Seems lak to me de day’s jes twice ez long, Seems lak to me de bird’s forgot his song, Sence you went away.
Seems lak to me I jes can’t he’p but sigh, Seems lak to me ma th’oat keeps gittin’ dry, Seems lak to me a tear stays in ma eye, Sence you went away.
Commentary on “Sence You Went Away”
James Weldon Johnson, an accomplished poet, also composed many songs that have become quite popular. His bluesy “Sence You Went Away” features a southern dialect. Johnson was a Southerner, having been born in 1871 and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, only relocating to New York in 1901.
First Stanza: Expressing Sorrow
Seems lak to me de stars don’t shine so bright, Seems lak to me de sun done loss his light, Seems lak to me der’s nothin’ goin’ right, Sence you went away.
The speaker is addressing an individual, who is likely a former lover or very good friend. The speaker expresses his sorrow by reporting that both the sun and stars do not seem to be shedding light now because of the absence of the addressee. The reader/listener learns nothing about the person who has gone away, only that the speaker’s life has been adversely affected by the loved one’s absence.
Not only do the speaker’s eyes seem no longer to perceive light, but he also feels that nothing in his life is proceeding correctly. He makes it clear that he is not asserting that the world itself has changed; he is merely revealing how things “seem” to him as he repeats throughout the poem, “seems lak to me,” that is, “seems like to me.”
Second Stanza: Absence of Sun
Seems lak to me de sky ain’t half so blue, Seems lak to me dat eve’ything wants you, Seems lak to me I don’t know what to do, Sence you went away.
The absence of sun and starlight affect the shade of the blue sky, which is now presenting itself as only “half” its normal shade. Everything reminds him that he is missing his belovèd. It even appears that everything he sees and does yearns to have this individual back in its purview.
The speaker’s intense exaggeration emphasizes his desire for the return of his missing loved one. Everywhere he looks he sees merely an absence that causes him pain and suffering. He even confesses that he feels unable to decide what he should be doing, if anything at all.
Third Stanza: Nothing Is Right
Seems lak to me dat eve’ything is wrong, Seems lak to me de day’s jes twice ez long, Seems lak to me de bird’s forgot his song, Sence you went away.
Again, the speaker/singer asserts that nothing seems right for him anymore; thus, he feels that “ev’ything is wrong.” And he reveals that time seems to lag because of his sorrow. Pain and suffering cause the human mind and heart to feel time as an oppressor, and that kind of oppression makes minutes seem like hours and days like weeks.
Nature in the form of singing birds is lost on him, and he thus suggests that those birds have even forgotten to sings. His melancholy grays out all of his senses, especially seeing and hearing. Life has lost its luster, light has escaped him, and even pleasant sounds are no longer detectable. And still again, he repeats the reason for his feeling that everything is so wrong in his life.
Fourth Stanza: Fog of Sorrow
Seems lak to me I jes can’t he’p but sigh, Seems lak to me ma th’oat keeps gittin’ dry, Seems lak to me a tear stays in ma eye, Sence you went away.
Finally, the speaker reveals his own behavior has been influenced by the sad fact that the addressee has gone away. He cannot seem to stop sighing, and his throat dries up. He also continue to weep, as he endures the pain of loss.
His physical functions are out of kilter: what needs to be wet is dry, and what needs to be dry is wet. The speaker’s world has transformed into a melancholy fog of sorrow and disorientation—all because his belovèd has gone away.
Kris Delmhorst’s Musical Version of Johnson’s Lyric
There are extant several different musical versions of James Weldon Johnson’s lyric “Sence You Went Away.” I suggest that Kris Delmhorst’s rendition fits perfectly with the sentiment and atmosphere of that lyric. While the other versions are entertaining and well-done, Delmhorst’s version and her singing remain the best in accomplishing the task of capturing the exact feeling of Johnson’s lyric.
Kris Delmhorst singing her version of Johnson’s “Sense You Went Away”
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: “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.
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
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”
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 Song: “The Paper Mill Bridge Song” with Prose Commentary
My original song “The Paper Mill Bridge Song” was inspired by the beautiful Whitewater River in Indiana and its relationship to the beautiful relationship I have enjoyed for over half a century with my wonderful husband, native of the little town of Brookville, Indiana.
Introduction and Excerpt from “The Paper Mill Bridge Song”
My husband, landscape artist Ron Grimes, created the video featured in this article to accompany my original song “The Paper Mill Bridge Song.” He wrote the following introduction to the piece and placed his video on YouTube:
A celebration of life and love as witnessed by the Paper Mill Bridge over the Whitewater River in Brookville, Indiana.
September 10th, 2022. Linda and I walked to the middle of the new Papermill Bridge. I wanted to capture some scenes for this video. As soon as I started videoing, this Canada Goose flew right over us and honked as it if it were saying, “I want to be in your video.” It was a gift.
Innovative Chorus
The song undergoes an unusual arrangement; instead of an ordinary chorus, it features an middle octave which behaves as a second octave and chorus that gets repeated at a the end of the song.
The Paper Mill Bridge Song
Here’s where people paddle canoes Down the Whitewater River. I stand here on Paper Mill Bridge. Watch the water and remember The day we walked along the bank, Sand so warm to my feet. We talked about cattails, rocks, and stars And the moss that grows on old trees.
These are the things that fill my day, Things we’ve done together. Sunshine streaming down through the leaves, A storm in the clouds or snow in the fields. River water runs through my veins. The stars light up my eyes. Love for you turns in my heart Like the sun burns through the sky.
Through the years my heart has filled With love for this old river. I stand here on Paper Mill Bridge. Watch the water and remember The day we paddled down the stream, A cool breeze on my shoulders. The sun shone bright over Paper Mill Bridge And I knew I’d love you forever.
These are the things that fill my day, Things we’ve done together. Sunshine streaming down through the leaves, A storm in the clouds or snow in the fields. River water runs through my veins. The stars light up my eyes. Love for you turns in my heart Like the sun burns through the sky.
My original song—”The Paper Mill Bridge Song”—focuses on one relationship that progresses from good friends to life partner. In the opening verse, the friends experience a quiet walk and talk along the river. In the final verse, the life relationship is solidified.
First Octave/Verse: The View from the Bridge
Here’s where people paddle canoes Down the Whitewater River. I stand here on Paper Mill Bridge. Watch the water and remember The day we walked along the bank, Sand so warm to my feet. We talked about cattails, rocks, and stars And the moss that grows on old trees
The singing narrator is standing on a bridge, which turns out to be the subject of the song, the Paper Mill Bridge. She begins to report on the activities that are locally common to that bridge. The bridge spans the Whitewater River—a river in mideastern to southern Indiana—and from its perch one can from time to time see canoers paddling their barks down the river.
The narrator then focuses on a memory that is important to her regarding her hike along the riverbank with a friend. During that pleasant stroll, the two friends casually conversed about river-related entities such as water reeds that look like “cattails” and other features of nature such a “rocks and stars.”
The narrator recalls that her feet enjoyed the luxury of the warm sand. They also held forth about the fact that moss grows on old trees—likely that the moss grows mostly on the north side of those arbolian creatures.
Second Octave/Chorus: Recurring Images
These are the things that fill my day, Things we’ve done together. Sunshine streaming down through the leaves, A storm in the clouds or snow in the fields. River water runs through my veins. The stars light up my eyes. Love for you turns in my heart Like the sun burns through the sky.
The chorus has an usual placement, standing the middle of the song and containing an equal number of line as each verse, instead of following each verse with fewer lines. Essentially the piece offers three separate octaves, even as the middle octave performs as a chorus.
In this innovative chorus, the narrator has placed a heavy emphasis. While she has offered some concrete details in the opening verse-octave, in the chorus-octave she is stating a general take on what she may likely be thinking about during this particular time period in her life.
She thus has been focusing mentally on things that she and her friend have enjoyed together. But then she adds two images in the first quatrain of the chorus-octave that allow her thoughts to show their natural influences as she experiences weather conditions—specially the warmth of spring and summer and the cold of fall and winter.
The second quatrain of the chorus-octave becomes even more generalized: she is a creature of the river, so closely attuned to river culture that it seems that the very waters of the river flow “through [her] veins.”
The narrators suggests that her happiness is enhanced as if by starlight. She then asserts that she loves her friend with the same intensity that causes the “sun” to burn “through the sky.” The hyperbole serves to suggest the strong emotion that this narrator feels for her friend, their relationship, and the natural features that they have experienced together.
Third Octave/Verse: The Passage of Time
Through the years my heart has filled With love for this old river. I stand here on Paper Mill Bridge. Watch the water and remember The day we paddled down the stream, A cool breeze on my shoulders. The sun shone bright over Paper Mill Bridge And I knew I’d love you forever.
The third octave/verse again focuses on the narrators thoughts about her friend, and now it becomes apparent that they are indeed life partners. But first she places that river into her affections; she has come to love the river, and again, she is standing on the same bridge with pleasant memories coming to the fore.
This time she remembers that like the other folks one might see canoeing down the Whitewater River, she and her partner did such paddling. That day she recalls that she felt a breeze on the skin; it was a “cool breeze”—indicating that it was likely early to mid-spring.
However, she then asserts that over that bridge the sun was beaming down in bright rays. And suddenly, her heart told her then as it is telling her now that she would continue to hold her partner in her heart “forever.”
Second Octave/Chorus: Recurring Images Again
These are the things that fill my day, Things we’ve done together. Sunshine streaming down through the leaves, A storm in the clouds or snow in the fields. River water runs through my veins. The stars light up my eyes. Love for you turns in my heart Like the sun burns through the sky.
The purpose of the repetition remains the exact same purpose that is held for all choruses in songs: to emphasize the sentiment expressed in the verses and perhaps add an extra image or two.
Linda Sue on the new Paper Mill Bridge – Constructed1977– Photo by Ron W. G.
This love song “Dreaming of You Again” features an individual who is musing on his continued feelings for and thoughts about a loved one from whom he has had to separate.
Introduction with Lyric “Dreaming of You Again”
The chorus of “Dreaming of You Again” features a sequence of statements regarding the visions that appear to the individual in his dreams about his beloved: first, he envisions “what could have been”; next, he sees “what would have been,” and finally he insists that he envisions “what should have been.”
Clearly, the individual’s feelings remains so strong that he feels that the two former partners do belong together, although they likely never will again unite. Still, he has his dreams.
Dreaming of You Again
Written by Ron Grimes and Linda Sue Grimes. Performed by Linda Sue Grimes.
Introductory Note by Ron Grimes: This is a song I wrote in 2003. Linda put the song to music. This video was created on January 1st 2023. The scene of us walking along the river was captured January 1st 2023 at Henry Horton State Park in Tennessee. We walked along the Duck River.
Chorus
Dreaming of you again, making up what’s true again Seeing now what we saw then Visions of what could have been—Dreaming of you again
First Verse
Growing quite accustomed to these crazy little dreams of you Just a way to pass the time These crazy little dreams of mine—Dreaming of you again Your face lights up my darkest night, stay with me, hold me tight Show me now what we knew then Help me find that joy again—Dreaming of you again
Chorus
Dreaming of you again making up what’s true again Seeing now what we saw then Visions of what would have been—Dreaming of you again
Second Verse
We both knew you had to leave, you had to grow, you had to breathe It hurt me so to see you cry The night you said your last good-bye—Dreaming of you again Wish you peace and happiness, hope you’ll always have the best And me I’ll have these dream of you Dreams I’ll always hold on to—Dreaming of you again
Chorus
Dreaming of you again, making up what’s true again Seeing now what we saw then Visions of what should have been—Dreaming of you again
Commentary on “Dreaming of You Again”
Dreams figure widely and often in love songs. One of the most popular love songs of the early Rock and Roll movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s was the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” This song “Dreaming of You Again” offers a unique twist on the dreaming function, as it makes an affirmative claim held by the composer of the lyric.
Chorus: What Could Have Been
Dreaming of you again, making up what’s true again Seeing now what we saw then Visions of what could have been—Dreaming of you again
The singer begins by offering a chorus that sets the stage for the rest of the piece. He has been dreaming about the individual he is addressing, creating mental pictures about what the couple felt and did with some speculation about what could have become for them in future.
First Verse: Crazy Dreams Repeating Themselves
Growing quite accustomed to these crazy little dreams of you Just a way to pass the time These crazy little dreams of mine—Dreaming of you again Your face lights up my darkest night, stay with me, hold me tight Show me now what we knew then Help me find that joy again—Dreaming of you again
The composer begins by offering a chorus that sets the stage for the rest of the piece.He has been dreaming about the individual he is addressing, creating mental pictures about what the couple felt and did with some speculation about what could have become for them in future.
Chorus: What Would Have Been
Dreaming of you again making up what’s true again Seeing now what we saw then Visions of what would have been—Dreaming of you again
Again, the composer repeats the refrain, chant-like, revealing again his visions as well as that they also belonged to his belovèd. This time he claim that those visions would have been reality, if they had remained together to build a life together.
Second Verse: Had to Leave to Breathe
We both knew you had to leave, you had to grow, you had to breathe It hurt me so to see you cry The night you said your last good-bye—Dreaming of you again Wish you peace and happiness, hope you’ll always have the best And me I’ll have these dream of you Dreams I’ll always hold on to—Dreaming of you again
The composer then offers a glimpse into the reason for this couple’s split: the one had to leave to grow and breathe. The lack of specificity allows the listener to fill in the blanks. But such a situation is not unheard of.
Sometimes opportunities do not exist for both partners in one location; thus, they have to separate to reach their goals. It does seem that both partners are sad about the situation.
Nevertheless, the composer has accepted the departure and now hopes that his partner finds the fulfilled life for which the individual had to leave. He wishes his belovèd peace, happiness, and all the best in life. Finally, he asserts that he will continue to engage in the dreams that bring his beloved back to him. He makes peace with the simple enjoyment of dreams instead of reality.
Chorus: What Should Have Been
Dreaming of you again, making up what’s true again Seeing now what we saw then Visions of what should have been—Dreaming of you again
Lest the composer demonstrate too easily the giving in to the way things are, he states that now his dreams are envisioning how things should have been—not merely that they “could” or “would.”
His affirming that they “should have been” is likely offered to rouse new thoughts in the distant former belovèd. If the departed individual is made aware that the composer still thinks they should have remained together, what kind of fire might that thought kindle in the mind of the addressee? Of course, the composer does not address that issue, so the listener can only speculate.
Other Videos by Ron Grimes
Ron in Tennessee – YouTube I am grateful to God for the beauty and gifts of nature, and for all of His blessings.
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