Loreena McKennit - 1992

strings vibrate colour

long locks flowing red shoulders

melody aloft

Sarah Harmer - 2010

sun glances left side

right side shadow

auburn hair glowing passion

red maple in autumn

you face us straight on with honest voice and

true song 

my daughter and I sit

thrilling

and sing along 

we know you

we think

no pretence

no extra show 

just singer

in sun

 

and shadow

David Amram - 1976

you adopted us

sisters and brothers  

french horn

penny whistle

drums  

long curly hair t-shirt adidas

vibrating energy exuding

all for the music

and the rightness of the moment  

adopting all folk

and all tradition  

synthing symphonic humanity

creating 

and we followed

clapping

singing

dancing

seeing new possibilities

when we take down fences

and become family

Peter Paul Van Camp - 1983

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Calvin bellows

standing in a sea of summer stanzas

waiting to be written

while everyone else screams for

DAIRY PRODUCTS

and the slight

bearded

bow-tied

man on stage knows they want

“A Milkman at Heart”

round rims glinting below  slicked 19^th C. hair 

Calvin knows it’s a losing battle

but this is part of our ritual here

in this field transformed into

small city and then poet begins his

milk masterpiece it’s

like Homer reciting the Iliad

but not much

kd lang - 1985

I was 23

married less than a year

small apt. on Roslyn

about to start a career

teaching bandchoirenglish

treading lightly on the earth 

you were 23

strutting stage

voice blasting a hole in the universe

behind the sound booth

usually we wait until it is darker

around 9:45

to weave our way around

tarps blankets feet

to open                space

behind sound booth

where crowds are walking back and forth

to get food

or find their spot  

and then we dance to the setting sun music

might be blues

or rock

or celtic

or bluegrass 

it doesn’t matter

we just dance by ourselves

or in a group and we

watch the parents

with children and remember when we danced here

with our one-year-old perched on my shoulders

giggling ringlets bouncing in the

last rays of the day