Great Big Sea - 1986

white foam waves

crash

against rocks sending

up spray 

tiny droplets rise and fall

just in time for next

upsurge  

wondering

what can survive here

         battering rhythm beating time

against a country new and old

rugged and weathered  

song sung by

boisterous baritone rocker

beats against our rocky souls

even though we are

flat

sea-less

prairie

 

for this is our shanty too

as they adopt us into the

fold

Elizabeth Cotton - 1979

had this cassette

from a scratchy record

of Libba singing  

freight train freight train  

old woman

singing little girl’s song

and then saw her

print skirt

buttoned up blouse

sitting with

upside-

down guitar  

picking the tune so full of longing and imagined escape

weathered face shining with kind eyes  

I wonder if she was buried on

old Chestnut street to hear

old Number 9  

and I wonder where that cassette is

Doc Watson - 1982

dark eyes clenched

wavy graying hair

side part  

fingers so fast and bright

he sees with the guitar

shining 

laying claim to the

sighted world with

wondrous phrases

kid's tent - 1995

I’ve heard this song a million times but it’s nap time

and she sleeps on my shoulder as I sit under the canvas

in our special space for the day listening to Al Simmons

but focus on the perfection I am holding ten toes ten fingers

totally relaxed and dependant on my arms for support

regular breaths oblivious to the uproarious noise from the stage

three-year-old sits on blanket eating a snack and thankfulness

floods through my heart

like an old song