Tag Poem

#MarcosPlaylist ‘Just the Two of Us’ sung by Grover Washington, Bill Withers and Will Smith #Saturdaysingalong #Tanka #Spotify

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Welcome back to #MarcosPlaylist and #SaturdaySingalong with another song from the playlist I made for my grandson in August 2020 on Spotify, when he was just a few days old. I chose my favourite songs with a mellow rhythm to sing to him, dance with him cradled in my arms and perhaps send him to sleep, or at least calm him down! This post, tanka and playlist is for Marcos, now sixteen-weeks old.

Today I’m featuring “Just the Two of Us“, a beautiful song with spellbinding lyrics and an unforgettable melody, written by the great Bill Withers, William Salter and Ralph MacDonald. It has been sung by many artists, but the most memorable are Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers.

It was first recorded by Grover Washington Jr. on the album, Winelight (1980). An edited version reached number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, The song won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. 

Bill Withers included the edited version on the 1981 compilation Bill Withers’ Greatest Hits and many subsequent greatest hits collections. The following youtube video has over 33 million views!

Seventeen years after its first recording, Will Smith released a single in 1997 which includes some of the lyrics and his own interpretation, which focuses on the relationship between a father and son. It is performed it in rap.

I’m pleased to know I’m not the only person who thought of their son or grandson when they heard and sang the song!

Will Smith also wrote a children’s book with the same title and lyrics (I’ve checked and it’s out of print).

Today’s #Tanka for Marcos

Just the Two of Us

Spending time with you
Is like a crystal rainbow
Lighting up the sky,
Made of magic raindrops falling,
When the sun comes shining through.
****

Marcos was just a week old in this picture!

#MarcosPlaylist ‘Hushabye Mountain’ sung by Pink Martini “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” Dick van Dyke #Saturdaysingalong #Tanka #Spotify

LucciaGray 1 Comment

Welcome back to #MarcosPlaylist and #SaturdaySingalong with another song from the playlist I made for my grandson in August 2020 on Spotify, when he was just a few days old. I chose my favourite songs with a mellow rhythm to sing to him, dance with him cradled in my arms and perhaps send him to sleep, or at least calm him down! This post, tanka and playlist is for Marcos, now fifteen-weeks old.

Today I’m featuring a real lullaby, a song from my favourite children’s film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which I hope to watch with Marcos, in a few years time.

The song is called Hushabye Mountain. It was written by Robert and Richard Sherman for the motion picture Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Caractacus Potts played by the great Dick Van Dyke sings the song to his children.

We had the soundtrack album at home and I used to play it all the time. I danced around the house singing all the songs well into my teens!

I’ve sung it to all my grandchildren as I cradled them to sleep, and they’ve all loved it and fallen asleep to it, so it’s still a very special song for me, from a very special film, probably because my father was mostly absent in my childhood, and I fell in love with the wonderful, single-parent father in this film.

Here’s the scene from the film.

The version I have on Spotify is by a musical group I had never heard of, before I found the song there, called Pink Martini, a band formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon. Pink Martini is like a little orchestra with two lead vocalists, playing different styles, including classical, traditional and pop. Here’s their version of the song on spotify:

#Tanka Hushabye Mountain

A gentle breeze blows

Across Lullaby Bay, to

Hushabye Mountain,

Sailing your worries away,

Close your eyes, it’s time to sleep.

****

Marcos was just a week old in this picture!

 

#Poem ‘Half Lives’ #ThursdayInspiration

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I was scrolling though the blogs I follow when I came across Lucysworks.com and I read her poetry contest prompt, which were the following lines from Pullitzer prize-winner, Wallace Stevens, and I was inspired at once.

“Elysia, these days, half earth, half mind;
Half-sun, half thinking of the sun; half sky,
Half desire for indifference about the sky.”

–– “Extracts From Addresses To The Academy of Fine Ideas.”

Well, here’s my poem, sorry it’s a bit dark, but that’s where the prompt took me this time. It would have suited Halloween! 

Half Lives 

You ask me what’s wrong,
‘I’m living half a life,
Trapped in half a world,
Surrounded by the others
Who are half dead.’
You point to the sun,
‘It’s whole, not half,’ you say,
And I’m wondering
How half of you can see it all,
When I know it’s torn in two,
Mutilated forever.
I remind you,
‘We can no longer be whole,
not now that we have half a mind.’
But you insist,
‘I love you as you are.’
You lie.
‘You don’t love him,
My other half,
The one facing the ashen ground
On the dark side of the moon.
He needs all your love, not half.’
Half of you cries and waves goodbye,
The other half holds my lifeless hand
In your mouldy fingers.
Two half corpses in two half graves.  

#FridayPhoto ‘Walls’ #Photooftheday ‘Home Sweet Home’

LucciaGray 3 Comments

Within city walls
Streets are calm,
Houses safe,
Home sweet home.

Cruel worlds lie beyond,
Banish pain,
Exile joy,
Home sweet home.

****

Within These Walls Home Sweet Home.

As I was walking by the ancient walls of the city of Cordoba, first built by the Roman founders of the city, around the second century, and later reinforced by subsequent conquerors from central Europe, the Visigoths,  later Muslims from North Africa, and finally the Spanish Monarchs from the north of the country, I was wondering about our need to conquer and feel safe from subsequent conquerors.

We have been building walls around our houses and cities for centuries and and now, two thousand years on, we still need to feel safe. Now the enemy is a virus, not an army, but we still retreat back within our walls, because the safety we perceive in the prison of our own making, is more important than the  happiness we give up by not venturing outside.
Home sweet home.
****

#SundayWalks ‘Sometimes The Sky’s Too Bright’ #Poem

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Sometimes the sky’s too bright

To see the clouds or birds.

Sometimes the sun burns through

The shade of leafy trees,

And blinds impatient eyes,

Still searching for visions

Of angels smiling

At the fire in her eyes.

Alas the sky’s too bright

To taste the salt in her tears,

Or quell the thirst in her heart,

And yet she journeys on

In search of her angels.

Harvest Moon in Cobalt Sky #Haiku

LucciaGray 11 Comments

Slowly, Silently,

Moon glides across cobalt sky,

Bursting with my dreams.

****

You all know how I love the moon because it energises and inspires me. In fact, my most popular all-time post is The Moon in Jane Eyre, and I have many poems inspired by this extraordinary planet. Check out yesterday’s blogpost if you missed it all about Full Moon Rituals and goal setting.

This is my view right now from my study. I’m literally blown away, writing poems, jotting ideas, preparing affirmations and setting goals for the month ahead. (I’ll be posting tomorrow morning)

How does the full moon make you feel?

Please add any moon related posts in the comments, I’d love to check them out!

Writers in #Autumn #Tanka

LucciaGray 16 Comments

Writers in Autumn

Season of Memories,
Weighing heavy on our hearts,
Bursting to be told,
Minds whirl with inspiration,
Words pour out like aged wine.
****

Welcome back to my blog!

I hope you’ve been coping well with the uncertain and unexpected times we’ve all had to deal with.

Some challenging situations have come my way, as well as the epidemic we’re all coping with, fortunately the storm is ebbing, and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

However, not everything which has required my undivided attention has been disheartening, I’ve also had the joy and privilege of meeting my fifth grandchild, Marcos, who is a real blessing for our family.

I always feel a bit nostalgic in September, after the long summer months and change of season, but I also have lots of new projects on the go, which I’ll be sharing with you shortly.

Meanwhile, stay safe and be happy!

 

 

#TuesdayBookBlog ‘The Other You’ J. S. Monroe @Scribd #BookReview #Tanka #MedicalThriller

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The Other You: a gripping and addictive new thriller for 2020 by [J.S. Monroe]

From the Blurb

Is he who you think he is?

Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.

At least she has Rob. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health in his high-tech modernist house on the Cornish coast. When she’s with him, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.

Until, one day, she looks at Rob anew – and knows, with absolute certainty, that he has been replaced by an impostor. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?

*****

My Review

The Other You is a spine chilling techno and medical thriller.

It’s a well plotted and tightly written novel. It has engaging characters; some are the good guys, who are led astray, and others are villains, who are very, very cunning and evil. Part of the suspense is figuring out who the good and bad guys really are.

The plot of The Other You brings us face to face with actions which push well over the limits of ethics, by using technology to fuel unlimited greed.  It makes us think about how far science and technology could go to literally take over our lives and even our minds.

It is an enthralling, entertaining and fast paced read, with a frightening, but believable premise and engaging characters. A 5-star read!

I listened to the audiobook version which was brilliantly read by Eilidh Beaton.

Especially for lovers of disquieting psychological and medical thrillers.

By the way, you can get it for the price of a coffee on kindle, right here!

Amazon.com author page

Amazon UK author page

Scribd

My Double

If I could live twice,
I’d be both saint and sinner.
My double and me,
We’re under your very eyes,
But you will never see us.

****