THE MOMENT'S NOTE
Entries from August 1, 2007 - September 1, 2007
Early song posting cuz I'm Going Out of Town!
All I Really
Want to Do
by Bob Dylan
I ain't lookin' to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you,
Frighten you or uptighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up,
Analyze you, categorize you,
Finalize you or advertise you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to meet your kin,
Make you spin or do you in,
Or select you or dissect you,
Or inspect you or reject you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to fake you out,
Take or shake or forsake you out,
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me,
See like me or be like me.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
[Commentary: Here's a tune by Bobby.
We need more effortless rhyming
happi-tude. No one does it better!]
Speak for Yourself, W.H.!
Law Like Love
by W. H. Auden
Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.
Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.
Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.
Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.
Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.
Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.
And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.
If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,
No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyway:
Like love I say.
Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.
[Commentary: As a lawyer and a poet, I have a special fondness for this poem. Hope you like it!]
In The World Where I Live
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Wedding Day Poem
To Ingrid
I wrote this poem for my wife
for our wedding. I'm glad to
post it as the first poem of this blog.
Who crossing kingdoms arch and arid
Wandered parched and waited empty
Who sometimes faltered, barely lucid
Lost in dreams of places where he
Drank her kindness like precious liquid
Who thus took strength from reverie
And headed straight where once was timid~
Who followed faithful destiny?
I did.
To Ingrid.
Who holding close her spirit kindred
Let go of pain and long regret
Who lost in thought and lying languid
Took comfort from her silhouette
Who found his soul completely naked
Moved by the love that he had met
Who in the quiet night where we hid
Told his heart’s most deepest secret?
I did.
To Ingrid.
Who consulted the wisest druid
Seeking to make himself worthy
Wishing to give her something splendid
A threshold to eternity
To grow a garden green and florid
A heart composed in purity
Who raised an alter and sent Cupid
Armed with love divine and earthly?
I did.
To Ingrid.
Who gazing into blue and limpid
Felt tender as her cheek and brow
Who felt her light within reflected
Opening then this here and now
Shimmering peaceful, pooled and placid
Compelling him in humble bow
To offer all~ Anxious and avid
Who gave his heart with solemn vow?
I did.
To Ingrid.
Copyright © Hank Edson 2007