Music is not passive

Music is not a background sound for me
it sparks my interests, my fantasies,

I simply cannot listen in a passive state

for the lyrics beg me to learn and relate,

Whether it's in a busy coffee shop
or in a park where there are kids and lollipops,

A song can stop me in my tracks
and add a tingle to my back,

A simple lyric can take me away
to a far off place where I can lay,

All my thoughts and all my dreams
a melody can change my entire scene,

The power in tone, bass and beat
so irresistible and passionate, I am replete,

I'll take a concert over birthday gifts any day
there's just no replacement for the atmosphere it plays,

What else can bring out emotions you never knew you had?
what else can transport you back to a time when you felt happy or sad?

There's always a tune in my head
Awake or when I'm ready for bed,

So next time just take a chance
Let music move you and make you dance,

Let it fill your soul with words that bleed
with meanings and symbols you didn't know you did need...

The Magnificent Isolation

On a recent drive, I noticed the most beautiful sights. They were not of well-constructed homes or billowing oak trees. Not clusters of birds flying above or tractors lined up just so. They were of abandoned things.

A forgotten pale blue car alongside a field rusting at its own pace. A home left to enjoy the peace of an empty residence. The remains of burnt logs. A tractor with missing tires. These are just some of the things I noticed along my route. And to me, they were each so beautiful and poetic in their own way. To some, they may have seemed like junk. But they were magnificent. Each of them carried s piece of history from yesterday or perhaps were hurriedly forgotten in the pace that is life.

It was very difficult for me not to pull over and want to jump out of the car to take a photograph. But time constraints and safety came to mind. But with my mind being visual, those images are etched in my mind. Perhaps I was able to relate to these inanimate objects because of their pureness. They were completely unattached to anything, anyone or any space or time. How beautiful and rare.

And so, I happened to be looking at random photographs that I enjoy taking in which there's no subject matter that might excite someone other than myself. And there among the skylines, telephone poles (I find them so majestic), was a gem.

What might you ask is attractive in this photograph to me? The simplicity. The isolation of an everyday object left on its own. As it sits catching light from a nearby window, I notice a gentle wear and tear...a tiredness in its existence...yet an aching to be worn to discover more boulevards, more avenues, more pathways. 

I'll never forget the sights from that drive. And maybe one day, I'll be able to show you what I saw. The isolation of objects. A most magnificent isolation.