BLESS THE POETS

BLESS THE POETS

The coffee shop sent a double order by mistake. 

Wouldn't take it back, said to throw it away.
Since it was Sunday, we fed the homeless 
sleeping in Market Street doorways.
We gave them an abundance of bagels & coffee.
May I have some cream and sugar?
Perhaps a napkin, and a knife for the schmear? 
Those on the street kept asking us why.
Because we're poets! we said. That's why. 
That's when they said Bless the poets.
And truly we were blessed.

1/27/13

St. Peet’s and the homeless in Market St doorways

This morning we fed the homeless on Market St. extra doses of Noah's Bagels & Peet's coffee—they sent us an extra order for our poetry workshop by mistake. We were an early gathering of poets for Poetry in translation training workshop for PIO—Poetry Inside Out. Those living on the street kept asking why. Because we're poets! That's why, we said. They said Bless the poets. I was a coffee wench until we ran out of cups. We found a shopping cart chef— he had an entire kitchen on wheels— and gave a gallon of hot coffee, bagels and schmear to him to distribute. It was a near religious experience all round. We traded names.  Michael, who had severe palsy, nearly wept with joy. I spread cream cheese on his bagel and wrapped it for him as he couldn't do it himself. Poet-angels, they called us. But they were the ones shedding light. Was a time when my own mother was one of the fallen ones sleeping in Market Street doorways. When I recounted the story, my friend Lin Marie de Vincent said, Bess the poets. and those who share when they have extra. There’s enough to go around. Once again "Noah" made room on the ark. And St Peet(er) warmed the souls of the poor. Shalom.

My Science & nature writing

This must've been for a job query. No letter, just the links. I suppose I could add onto it.

Oystergate: Drake's Bay Oyster Farm loses lease

Hiking up Big Rock Ridge

Marin's Pastures of Plenty

STREAMSONG

Lagunitas Vernal Pools

Edgewood Preserve

Living Between Faultlines

WALKING ONION

Bobcat in Ojai backcounty

Save Baja's Cabo Pulmo Reef from Developers

Chilean Miners

RIP Chris Caswell, Bard

Chris Caswell's Facebook album, At the Gypsy Glen

Tuesday morning, I had a nagging feeling that someone I knew, a friend had died. I had a purple ribbon, a lost streamer from someone's funeral wreath I found blowing across a lawn, in my car for ages. I'm partial to purple. I had tossed it into the recycle box weeks ago, but it kept finding its way back out onto the floor.

So I picked the ribbon up off the floor and washed the mud off of it, trying not to think of graveyards, and hung it to dry on my Celtic music CD rack. it's just a ribbon, I said. Maybe I can reuse it. I felt a shock. Death wants it back. Stupid. Don't be superstitious, I said to myself. Someone walking on a grave, my inner voice said. It's just a purple satin ribbon, I said aloud. Nothing more. I will repurpose it, I said.

The day before, while at work, I felt suddenly and inexplicably sad. Body blows. Like a freight train had hit me. I was weak-kneed. I could barely get through my shift. I looked at the clock: 3 PM. 4 PM. I blamed a virus.

I remembered the dead: Boschka Layton came to mind. I told a co-worker how we shared the hospice and right before she died, and how I got so sick, so fast—bronchitis. Death can do that. Something about the past was haunting me. I didn't feel good, I went home early and cancelled my Tuesday morning class.

A restless night. I slept in late—something I never do. I was haunted by dreams I couldn't remember. I didn't get the news until Tuesday that Chris Caswell died at his home on Monday, during the same time I was feeling the weight of death upon me, wondering who had died.

My grandmother always heard knocks at the door when someone died. Not me. Mercifully. Don't let birds come into the house, she said. It invites death in.

Old Tunes, New Licks

Because my partner, Neil O'Neill is a Celtic folksinger, my ad-hoc job is to sleuth out the provenance of traditional Scottish and Irish folksongs, collect variants, and to write the liner notes. What I've learned is that new song lyrics are often set to old tunes or melodies, and updated every generation, and that the song is a compilation of melody or tune, and lyrics (words). 

The ballad our family traditionally sings at every funeral, Danny Boy, is a melody from an old Irish air "discovered" by a sister-in-law in the goldmines of Colorado [what was she doing in the mines?], Londonderry Air (AKA "Air from County Derry" or "Derry Air"), with words written by a London barrister and lyricist in 1910—a prime example of melodic borrowing.

Frederic Weatherly gave the ancient Irish tune, updated with his new lyrics to Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs in the new century (first record was made in 1915). So we tend to think of him as the author and composer of Danny Boy. But he didn't compose the melody of the song, just the lyrics. 

The story goes that the original air was collected from a blind fiddler by Jane Ross of Limavady in Northern Ireland, and published by musicologist and antiquarian, George Petrie in 1855, The Ancient Music of Ireland, by the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland.

World famous song Danny Boy is taken from a melody composed by O’Cahan bard Rory Dall O’Cahan. The original version concerns the passing of the Chief Cooey-na-Gall whose death brought an end to a long line of O’Cahan chiefs in Northern Ireland. —Wiki

Folksingers have been swapping tunes and lyrics for eons—sometimes, in their travels, the bits get separated from each other—a muffled line becomes a mondegreen, oftentimes new songs arise from the ashes of the old.

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl O' Moray
And Lady Mondegreen.

So much for laying the poor old dead Earl of Moray down on the green. And what about Lady Mondegreen? She had some melons. A Cuban favorite: José can you see by the dawn's early light? Imagine a rainbow Hendrix: 'S'cuse me while I kiss this guy. Who knew that Kumbaya is really Come by Here—oh Lord.

Our family simply slaughters the lyrics to Háva Nagíla at weddings. Gawd only know what we're boisterously singing while mangling the Grapevine. (Mondegreens in Hebrew are called watermelons.) Malachy McCourt thought The Hail Mary rosary phrase "amongst women" was "a monk swimming", which became the title of his book. Neil, who was an altar boy in Scotland, thought the Latin mea culpea was "Mexican cowboy." OK, so maybe he was stretching it a bit.

Many Irish songs and melodies that traveled to the New World morphed into what we think of as American songs—sometimes with watermelon mondegreens intact.