somewhere in the chaos and the calm, may you find your Self in all of your splendor
something intimate
about time in a cafe
when I am quiet inside
when the music, the books
speak to me
she told me in a dream
decades ago
"you can come here
any time you want"
it's no mistake
when I am here
plotting my life's course
or resting by the side of its stream
we were in the Red Star Cafe
on that street beneath waking
her feet bare on the wood floor
she put an aura around the place
a protection, a blessing
for the perpetual possibility of that closeness
that intimacy
with her
I
with Arlo Guthrie on one side
Pete Seeger on the other
a cassette I picked up for a buck
at a library book sale in the 90's
some songs became favorites --
"Quite Early Morning", "Presidential Rag"
"Stealin'" -- "Pretty momma don't tell on me..."
II
today, at a vintage clothing store at Mahall's lanes
found a folk collection on compact disc
Dave Grisman, Bonnie Raitt, and, bless my heart
Jerry Garcia
not looking at the song list too closely
I spin it --
you might guess the rest
"Wrap your arms around me
like a circle round the sun..."
who is that singing "Stealin'"?
ah, brash rooster of delight
it's Jerry himself!
what more
what more is there?
“Solsbury Hill” at the cafe
Peter Gabriel's disavowed uber-hit
funny how we will always be known
for how we once were
in everyone else's eyes but our own
for them, that fierce passion of youth
produced the epitome of our soul's reflection
for us, our best is always yet to come
my best, an egg in the shell of the moment
yes, I wait anxiously for the hatching
but what more?
what more is there
than where you happen
to find yourself?
