Saturday, May 12, 2012

When a Trinity Exists: Show Reviews


The concert season is upon us. Well, if you are me, there is no season. It always is, just a matter of how cold you are willing to get while waiting in line. I am kind of built for sub-zero line-standing, so I complain less than most.

Earlier this week I got to see the Fray, thanks to my friend Liz. I had seen them before at Riverport and really enjoyed the show, so the thought of seeing them at a smaller venue, the Pageant, was pretty exciting. I will say they put on a fantastic performance; however, I do not think they did a great job of acclimating to their environment. They are used to big venues with big production, and at times I felt they overwhelmed the Pageant, turned her up to eleven when she should have stayed on four. Instead of giving us some really intimate moments, they gave us a spectacle, and I had already seen that from them.

Tonight, I got to witness something totally different, an icon, a legend, and a huge influence on me as a songwriter, performing in a very small venue, comparatively speaking. Amy Ray, member of the Indigo Girls, came to St. Louis to play the Old Rock House, a stage I have played many times, and I was there to witness it. I don’t think I can do this experience justice in prose. I mean, in my opinion, Amy Ray probably has the best female rock voice, ever. And I, subconsciously, jacked more shit from the Indigo Girls than any other band. When I was first learning to play guitar and transition from poet to songwriter, there were a few bands in constant rotation: Edwin McCain, Duncan Sheik, and the Indigo Girls.

Rather than dribble on about the evening, I will speak the way I know best…

When a Trinity Exists

She moved me
Like a child
Moved by first experience
Her ten fingers
Overwhelmed six strings
And I
Felt her sincerity
Heard the urgency in her flat pick
And when she sang
I remembered why I sing
Why I crave the stage
Like most crave sex
Why I sacrifice lower order needs
To self-actualize
In rare moments
When a trinity exists
Between
Music
Me
And you

Before I end, I do have to mention Larkin Poe. They opened for Amy Ray. This was my second time seeing them, and both times I have been totally impressed. Also, at the Fray show I got to see Dia Frampton open, and that was actually the cooler moment. She did a great job of capturing it for me, well all of us in attendance. Liz and I are in the purple box.

 

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

#MicroPoetry Recap: March - April (2012)

May is upon us, which means Summer is close, and that makes me happy. It also means it is time for me to pull together all my #MicroPoetry posts from March and April. 

I learned something very valuable over the last two months, poetry, words really, are an integral part of who I am as a person. When I do not feel like myself, I cannot find them, the words, like they are affixed to the real me, the pure me, the core me, and when that me is lost...well, so are his words. There was a two week period after surgery when I was just not myself, fighting to see daylight through the haze of anesthesia, fighting to gain clear thought while trapped in the cage of a hospital, fighting to feel an emotion that was stronger than the pain my body was feeling. In those moments, I lost me and with that, lost my words. Luckily, when I found myself, my words were happy to see me.





#MicroPoetry: March - April (2012)

Still
The haze
Thick
Uninterrupted I
Lost
Beneath fog
Preventing
Complete thought

I found your freckles
Softly exposed
Beneath spring’s sunshine kiss
They
Like your smile
Reflect silent personality

I
Beat
Loudly
THUMP-thump resonates within inner ear
While silent mind counts beats-per-minute
Proving you excite me

You rode them like a jockey rides a thoroughbred
Your fear of movement
Announced to the world
Via red light SOS message

I saw them
Pre-parade crazies
Green haired and shamrock stickered
Pushing carts filled with Leprechaun cookies

I took hungry bites
Allowing food to fill my mouth
While prayers still rested on my lips

Tasseled hair and librarian smile
You move me with gentle fingers
Effortlessly
Wires from limbs to horizontal control
I dance on command

I never saw you until I felt you
Your cold hands always under my undershirt
The ten finger tickle that made you infamous
I dreamt of you
Silent and sweltering
Spread out in sacrifice to early summer
Your chest glistening as it rose with calm breath

Slept soundly
Cocooned by blankets and pillows
Drunk on exhaustion and fermented fruit
Nose exposed
Cold
Dreams
Locked on childhood

Kids clamber to find colored eggs
While parents eat peeps with prayers on their lips
He has risen

I want that comfortable feeling
Where we can tackle afternoons from the couch
You laying on me in silence

I remember when it was seedy
Before the neon facade
Drunken grab-ass and woo-girls
When the music meant something
When it was the pinnacle of each moment


Woke-up from old wood trembling
Found myself in an arcade
Paying pennies to watch peep shows of us
Just stills and primitive movement
Reminding me of what it felt like to be inside of you

Sunburn months
Create high-noon mirages
Images of you with sand in toes and hair
Freckled cheeks
Interrupted by sunshine smiles
Covered in youth

She said beauty and sadness
I paused to reflect on the omnipresent pillars
On how they often reveal themselves in tandem
On the beautiful smile of a sad-eyed clown


You came to me
When rise and fall was calm
Steady
Rhythmic
You hijacked moments not controlled by conscious thought
And I welcomed the invasion

Oxblood on vintage linoleum
Morning shuffle's creaks and moans
Sit below the constant clack of a restless search

She is the exclamation point in my sentence
In her absence
My world is a series of dangling modifiers
Actions affecting false objects

She danced between shadows
Stood there
Sunlight on her face
Seeking answers
He hid in dark corners
Hoping to remain unnoticed
Hands toward heaven
Hearing the same silent response


One thing that I love about this collection is the purity of thought. There is truly no external influence placing pressure on these words, as I haven't dated anyone during this time period, so the "she" and "you" is really my mind creating an ideal.