Icarus pondering # 3

Driving to Memphis

I was sent this picture yesterday and its my kinda bridge, you can hear it twang as you drive across and I imagine this is what it could be like if I was driving to Graceland. But that is another part of the lyrical future of nostalgia I have been ruminating. And I am writing a song with this in mind. It goes,

Oldsmobile Rocket 88

The last time I saw Elvis/ he was flying over Memphis/ in an Oldsmobile Rocket/ 88 drophead with whitewall tyres. And here is the car itself. And in my head the whole anticipation of American culture that I imagined as a teenager becomes manifest in such images, hence the 'future of nostalgia'. And for the first time I am writing songs (perhaps lyrical poems) with a theme that has allowed me to grow into my age. So 'yeah, yeah, yeah, to that.' And not just the lyrical content but the tunes have a retro feel, the feel I always liked and so I will begin recording them one at a time. In the meantime, this song catches something for me because it captures loads of images that travels across continents:

Icarus pondering # 2

When will it end

Pondering the cold and the white, frosted trees serves as a reminder that nature is no April fool but an ongoing mystery, a bit like life itself. So I am open to suggestion, seduction and cures for cold sores and head colds. A walk over crisp meadows, methinks. But oh, so much work to do, marking to be done, papers to be written and brains to be engaged in esoteric musing on ideas so I best get on - me and Dan like this song and I gather we are not the only ones - Classy Girls:
Well she was
standing in a bar
I said hello
how do you do?

Icarus pondering # 1

Standing small in a tall white monastery of modern, as ancient

Catalonian light filters over my shoulder,

I ponder a point of in-between - terra incognita caught

in the hollows between the lands we know and know not, 

a breath of tension crystallises thought from a constellation

of images and ideas and ideals,

I deal, he receives and plays

the joker in the pack.

Icarus at MACBA in Barcelona # 1

going...

going...

gone...

Icarus searching # 4

Calgary in the snow: hiding round the back of the Methodist Church in Brighton is this piece of metalwork. Its less of a gate and more of a metaphor and I like coming across random artworks like these which fit the context of the setting. Curious that I should come across this gate today of all days because 3 hours after taking this picture the world headlines echoed the words, 'Viva il Papa' as Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the new Pope Francis. I have always liked the name Francis and I am intrigued by the idea he is a Jesuit, but I am not sure what it all means, just that this picture, in a series I took, has a serendipitous resonance about it. Time for some music and time for reflection.

Icarus searching # 3

A Conceit, by Maya Angelou

Give me your hand

Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.

Let others have
the privacy of
                                                       touching words
                                                       and love of loss
                                                       of love.

                                                       For me
                                                       Give me your hand.