Farewell again to the long and longer days. Midsommar yesterday was merciful providence, blowing and drying away the worst of the months of May that ever intruded on my family. My mother is alive, after it all, and is still in pain. But she is indomitable and I have learned another lesson from her, after all these years.
I’m back to writing. And to the roots of what got me going over four years ago. Song.
Working on a chapter, my best prompts and re-prompts come from music, almost random finds. Imagine if you could “prompt” the new Intelligences with song instead of treating them as Socratic Engines designed to replace the “old” Search Engines?
Watching a surreal series that had the best bundle of writing, “Northern Exposure”, the swan song was a perfect choice, “Our Town”.
I am writing (or more rather re-writing scenes in a different town, in the Northern latitudes of another world, a thousand years from now, and the song comes on. And I “know” what to do, because I have felt it first.
Anyway, here are the lyrics and tunes. Maybe you can use them too.
And you know the sun's settin' fast And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's bound to die Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town? Goodnight
Up the street beside that red neon light That's where I met my baby on one hot summer night He was the tender and I ordered a beer It's been forty years and I'm still sittin' here
But you know the sun's settin' fast And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's bound to die Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town? Goodnight
It's here I had my babies and I had my first kiss I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist Over there is where I bought my first car It turned over once but then it never went far
And I can see the sun's settin' fast And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's bound to die Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town? Goodnight
I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa They sleep up the street beside the pretty brick wall I bring them flowers about every day But I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say
If they could see how the sun's settin' fast And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's bound to die Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town? Goodnight
Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning bugs fly But I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go I love you, my town, you'll always live in my soul
But I can see the sun's settin' fast And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts Well, go on, I gotta kiss you goodbye But I'll hold to my lover 'cause my heart's about to die Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town I can see the sun has gone down on my town, on my town Goodnight Goodnight
I am happy you are writing again and am sorry that May was so brutal. My May was pretty intense too. I find if I can return to my writing, my practice I can try and ground myself, make sense of it all...maybe a little bit anyway.
I am happy you are writing again and am sorry that May was so brutal. My May was pretty intense too. I find if I can return to my writing, my practice I can try and ground myself, make sense of it all...maybe a little bit anyway.