Great posting, thanks Jamie. Thanks too for the introduction to Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul. Good stuff is still out there. My claim to fame is that I went to a Pink Floyd concert on their Dark Side of the Moon tour ... err ... that must have been 50 years ago, noting the anniversary disc out now. They had a giant circular screen behind them, onto which was projected moving psychadelic imagery. And the sound quality, amazing. I think it was in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where I was a student. Anyway, enough of reminiscing.
It seems 1945-1980 was a 'golden era' of "we all rise together after the horrors of two world wars" ... which was the mantra or 'ethic' I was brought up on. To see it all go downhill since Thatcher/Reagan into the pitiful state of politics and deliberate immiseration of the masses can be pretty depressing at times. I admit I struggle with the 'lost opportunity'. I can only accept there are hugely bigger forces at work, shaping history - and the challenge is to stay steady pyschologically & spiritually through it all. What can I do to 'save' my grand-children from all what might be to come? Quite honestly, I've no idea. Maybe I can bequeath a productive quinta in Portugal, and that's good enough.
Your poem is great; in a few short words it captures a real essence. Great stuff. Cheers, Josh.
Thanks Josh! Your responses always leave me with a sense of being in the presence of an elder. An elder who cares for the land. One who lives in the spaces and one who definitely will leave it better than he found it! Thanks so much for your wisdom and light here. You make it better. Bless you 🙏❤️
Excellent post, Jamie. I can remember the first time I heard Dark Side of the Moon. It was a spiritural experience. Then I saw Pink Floyd at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, back in 1977. Music and poetry speaks a language that enters the heart.
Anger and rage are normal human emotions that come out of pain and disappointment. Even so, we need hope and joy to sustain us and move us forward. Hope and Joy. Thanks, Jamie, for this insightful piece.
Thanks Perry! Nice to see you back. Music in poetry and the language of heart. I can drink to that! Here’s to hope. Bless you! That must’ve been one hell of a concert. Thanks for reaching out and for being here. 🙏❤️
I was sitting on the floor. There were about 100,000 people in attendance. The concrete stadium was not the best place for a concert. Lots of reverb. Also lots of drugs. It was an experience.
Jamie, I simply adore this post, as well as Pink Floyd!
"Words added to music or music added to words. What comes first? Does it matter?In the end it’s still a song. It is a communion beyond mere communication.We are the song."
And this one that has been on my lips for so long: "There's nothing worth stealing left."
You have written words with layers of questions and concerns, and music has always been an excellent tool, like all art, for changing layers into protest, and consciousness, just as you are doing by translating thoughts into words and acknowledging "the dark side of the moon."
Thanks Katerina for undressing the layers! Its definitely time for women to lead this world home! No stealing. Just revealing. Remembering what love really is. Music. Words. A song. There is no shadow in the darkness. Its the only way through. We are ready now for the light! Keep shining! Bless you 🙏❤️
Very good. Respect. For some reason your post/poem triggered a line … ‘the tremor in the songs of love’. (And sent me to ‘Bushes & Briars’; collected by R. Vaughan Williams, 1901 … first couple of verses.)
What is left? The late David Graeber wrote ('Debt', 2011) …‘The past has a shape’.
Politics & poems? Hannah Arendt was a late-life friend of Auden in New York: her rather brilliant essay is still available here https://bit.ly/3WhWJhQ Dig the photo … that overcoat … she survived; Walter Benjamin didn’t. Importantly she also reported on the Eichmann Trial. (h/t over recent years, Sacasas; ‘The Convivial Society’.)
Yesterday evening after a hurried call the day before, daughter drove us to the Northumberland Coast south of Lindisfarne for a vigil for the Palestine dead. The co-incidences of timing on a holiday coast brought a good collection. We included an older Jewish intellectual and a young Palestinian woman. She recited a poem. (Her family came to Britain in 1967. Her grandparents’ house is still there … interesting story.) I guess we were/are all British citizens. I spoke very briefly of my vivid memories of being bombed. The beach had emptied of the summer families, leaving the children’s sandcastles to the incoming tide. The coast as you know is littered with fortifications ancient & modern. I guess most of us were political – probably mostly with a small ‘p’ these days.
Blake was political, ‘All Heaven in a rage’: died a pauper, is buried in a common grave in Bunhill Fields. What is left? Tributes? You dig deep. I will attempt to do a little justice with a write-up on my substack. Thanks.
Philip, I have no words! Your responses here are poetry. You take me down new tunnels to explore. New readings to discover. You have more wisdom in your pinky finger than I have ever known in my whole existence. You are a true elder. Thank you for being here. I can’t wait to read more. Your ceremony on the coast sounds wonderful! Yes to Blake! What do we leave behind? Ask the dust. Bless you. ❤️
Us and Them - one of my fav songs ever. So powerful and always relevant.
Thanks Jamie for bringing this all together into poetry.
"Where do we start this rewrite?" We start with ourselves, with playing the songs, writing the poetry, creating community. With what you and so many others are doing. Sharing our light.
That is Potent work, as opposed to "impotent". Coming from love and connection.
Thanks Jo! The path from fear to love is the miracle of our lives! I am a poem that I write, as I dance between the two! Definitely wavy. Potent journey. Thanks for your support and good luck with your move. 🙏❤️
Whoosh, witness and testify Sir Jamie! Wicked good. I witnessed Pink Floyd performing ANIMALS, it was a rush and I was young and I am still “forever young.”Love, peace and music, granola granny G
Yes to the way music swallows us whole. There is something magical about being at a concert…but close, so close that the noise separates you and engulfs you. Eardrums be damned, I’d do it all again.
I am so glad I went with the audio on this one. You have a beautiful singing voice. Maybe you will start singing some of your poems?
I have been at a concert like that. Sometimes we are surprised by unexpected sacredness. You express that so beautifully.
I now must go look up what Pink Floyd means 😂. My grandma told me to laser light shows to Pink Floyd music when I was young at Griffith Park above LA. It is a wonderful memory for me.
Thanks Terra! Thanks for listening to the audio. I kind of go off the top of my head recording and in the spur of the moment I mixed up the meaning of Pink Floyd with Steely Dan lol! I’m not so sure about future singing but thanks for being so kind lol! It’s funny some of the poems do come to me as song.
The music of Pink Floyd really created the space for the words. The venue and emotional proximity at that concert was nothing I had felt before. The laser shows sounds like a wonderful memory. Thank you so much for all the support. 🙏❤️
Oh my Jamie. Really. If some of them come to you as music, and you are comfortable, I would love to hear you sing them. Maybe you and Jacqueline will collaborate in new ways 😉💖. Those never-felt-before experiences are pivotal and such gifts.
Yes, our conversation from the other day comes to mind. Today, the implications are deeper and bigger somehow, so it's got me thinking on a larger scale. XO
You’ve just transported me to my youth … Pink Floyd and others … belting our little hearts out … feeling the music … without knowing why we were singing. Youth 💜Smiling 😊🙏
Ooh do you think you can tell… Heaven from hell.. crazy every time I pick up the guitar that’s the first thing I play! Thank you for the smiles! Thank you for being here and have a wonderful day 🎵🙏❤️
I saw pink Floyd in Glasgow late 60’s. I think I was probably still a school boy. In this long life the most important lesson I have learnt is that on can only work on one’s self and if one is successful then the world changes.
Oh I love this essay so much! Thank you for sharing this transformative experience in such beautiful words! It makes me think if the experience was so special because the intention of this concert was to be kind and give back, and this Love was clearly vibrating between the beats! Let's always be kind with ourselves and others, it changes so much! 💕🙏
Thanks Sadhbh! I never thought about that with the free show and gratitude as the energy exchange vs money! More experience and less entertainment maybe? Was beyond kind on his part! Thanks for reading and your support! Bless you 🙏❤️
Great posting, thanks Jamie. Thanks too for the introduction to Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul. Good stuff is still out there. My claim to fame is that I went to a Pink Floyd concert on their Dark Side of the Moon tour ... err ... that must have been 50 years ago, noting the anniversary disc out now. They had a giant circular screen behind them, onto which was projected moving psychadelic imagery. And the sound quality, amazing. I think it was in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where I was a student. Anyway, enough of reminiscing.
It seems 1945-1980 was a 'golden era' of "we all rise together after the horrors of two world wars" ... which was the mantra or 'ethic' I was brought up on. To see it all go downhill since Thatcher/Reagan into the pitiful state of politics and deliberate immiseration of the masses can be pretty depressing at times. I admit I struggle with the 'lost opportunity'. I can only accept there are hugely bigger forces at work, shaping history - and the challenge is to stay steady pyschologically & spiritually through it all. What can I do to 'save' my grand-children from all what might be to come? Quite honestly, I've no idea. Maybe I can bequeath a productive quinta in Portugal, and that's good enough.
Your poem is great; in a few short words it captures a real essence. Great stuff. Cheers, Josh.
Thanks Josh! Your responses always leave me with a sense of being in the presence of an elder. An elder who cares for the land. One who lives in the spaces and one who definitely will leave it better than he found it! Thanks so much for your wisdom and light here. You make it better. Bless you 🙏❤️
Excellent post, Jamie. I can remember the first time I heard Dark Side of the Moon. It was a spiritural experience. Then I saw Pink Floyd at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, back in 1977. Music and poetry speaks a language that enters the heart.
Anger and rage are normal human emotions that come out of pain and disappointment. Even so, we need hope and joy to sustain us and move us forward. Hope and Joy. Thanks, Jamie, for this insightful piece.
Thanks Perry! Nice to see you back. Music in poetry and the language of heart. I can drink to that! Here’s to hope. Bless you! That must’ve been one hell of a concert. Thanks for reaching out and for being here. 🙏❤️
I was sitting on the floor. There were about 100,000 people in attendance. The concrete stadium was not the best place for a concert. Lots of reverb. Also lots of drugs. It was an experience.
Yeah, that’s a mass of humanity! Up in smoke indeed. Sometimes we don’t even remember. We just know. Bless you Perry.
Jamie, I simply adore this post, as well as Pink Floyd!
"Words added to music or music added to words. What comes first? Does it matter?In the end it’s still a song. It is a communion beyond mere communication.We are the song."
And this one that has been on my lips for so long: "There's nothing worth stealing left."
You have written words with layers of questions and concerns, and music has always been an excellent tool, like all art, for changing layers into protest, and consciousness, just as you are doing by translating thoughts into words and acknowledging "the dark side of the moon."
Thanks Katerina for undressing the layers! Its definitely time for women to lead this world home! No stealing. Just revealing. Remembering what love really is. Music. Words. A song. There is no shadow in the darkness. Its the only way through. We are ready now for the light! Keep shining! Bless you 🙏❤️
Keep shining as well, Jamie! 🙏❤️Yes, We are ready now for the light!
Very good. Respect. For some reason your post/poem triggered a line … ‘the tremor in the songs of love’. (And sent me to ‘Bushes & Briars’; collected by R. Vaughan Williams, 1901 … first couple of verses.)
What is left? The late David Graeber wrote ('Debt', 2011) …‘The past has a shape’.
Politics & poems? Hannah Arendt was a late-life friend of Auden in New York: her rather brilliant essay is still available here https://bit.ly/3WhWJhQ Dig the photo … that overcoat … she survived; Walter Benjamin didn’t. Importantly she also reported on the Eichmann Trial. (h/t over recent years, Sacasas; ‘The Convivial Society’.)
Yesterday evening after a hurried call the day before, daughter drove us to the Northumberland Coast south of Lindisfarne for a vigil for the Palestine dead. The co-incidences of timing on a holiday coast brought a good collection. We included an older Jewish intellectual and a young Palestinian woman. She recited a poem. (Her family came to Britain in 1967. Her grandparents’ house is still there … interesting story.) I guess we were/are all British citizens. I spoke very briefly of my vivid memories of being bombed. The beach had emptied of the summer families, leaving the children’s sandcastles to the incoming tide. The coast as you know is littered with fortifications ancient & modern. I guess most of us were political – probably mostly with a small ‘p’ these days.
Blake was political, ‘All Heaven in a rage’: died a pauper, is buried in a common grave in Bunhill Fields. What is left? Tributes? You dig deep. I will attempt to do a little justice with a write-up on my substack. Thanks.
Philip, I have no words! Your responses here are poetry. You take me down new tunnels to explore. New readings to discover. You have more wisdom in your pinky finger than I have ever known in my whole existence. You are a true elder. Thank you for being here. I can’t wait to read more. Your ceremony on the coast sounds wonderful! Yes to Blake! What do we leave behind? Ask the dust. Bless you. ❤️
Jamie
Graeber writes of the 'experience of Moral Confusion'. Count me in with the same crowd on any ordinary day! Hang on to the poems as we can.
Beautiful ❤️
Thanks! 🙏❤️
Love it Jamie! The dark side of the moon is one of my fav albums. Even when I listen now I’m transported to that other side we constantly dream off!
Thanks Mo! It’s one of the best ever. 🙏❤️
Us and Them - one of my fav songs ever. So powerful and always relevant.
Thanks Jamie for bringing this all together into poetry.
"Where do we start this rewrite?" We start with ourselves, with playing the songs, writing the poetry, creating community. With what you and so many others are doing. Sharing our light.
That is Potent work, as opposed to "impotent". Coming from love and connection.
Thank you Jamie as always. 🙏
Thanks Jo! The path from fear to love is the miracle of our lives! I am a poem that I write, as I dance between the two! Definitely wavy. Potent journey. Thanks for your support and good luck with your move. 🙏❤️
Whoosh, witness and testify Sir Jamie! Wicked good. I witnessed Pink Floyd performing ANIMALS, it was a rush and I was young and I am still “forever young.”Love, peace and music, granola granny G
Forever young! Thank you so much for the smiles and the support! Bless you 🙏❤️
Yes to the way music swallows us whole. There is something magical about being at a concert…but close, so close that the noise separates you and engulfs you. Eardrums be damned, I’d do it all again.
Thanks Jenn! Damn those earbuds indeed! 🙏❤️
I am so glad I went with the audio on this one. You have a beautiful singing voice. Maybe you will start singing some of your poems?
I have been at a concert like that. Sometimes we are surprised by unexpected sacredness. You express that so beautifully.
I now must go look up what Pink Floyd means 😂. My grandma told me to laser light shows to Pink Floyd music when I was young at Griffith Park above LA. It is a wonderful memory for me.
Thanks Terra! Thanks for listening to the audio. I kind of go off the top of my head recording and in the spur of the moment I mixed up the meaning of Pink Floyd with Steely Dan lol! I’m not so sure about future singing but thanks for being so kind lol! It’s funny some of the poems do come to me as song.
The music of Pink Floyd really created the space for the words. The venue and emotional proximity at that concert was nothing I had felt before. The laser shows sounds like a wonderful memory. Thank you so much for all the support. 🙏❤️
Oh my Jamie. Really. If some of them come to you as music, and you are comfortable, I would love to hear you sing them. Maybe you and Jacqueline will collaborate in new ways 😉💖. Those never-felt-before experiences are pivotal and such gifts.
"Stealing an inheritance
Never intending to give it back"
Powerful!! Thanks for sharing this. That's going to stick with me today as I think about this. XO
Thank you so much Danielle for reading! What do we leave behind? Feeds back into our conversation from before! I appreciate you reaching out. 🙏❤️
Yes, our conversation from the other day comes to mind. Today, the implications are deeper and bigger somehow, so it's got me thinking on a larger scale. XO
We live in to the questions. Bless you. 🙏❤️
You’ve just transported me to my youth … Pink Floyd and others … belting our little hearts out … feeling the music … without knowing why we were singing. Youth 💜Smiling 😊🙏
Thanks Simone ❤️ We are the song! Thanks for reading, and reaching out! Sing loud! Bless you 🙏
Yes, we are the song 🎵. I am laughing … we would all sit around singing ‘Wish You Were Here’, at 15 … like we had lived it 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Bless you too 🙏
Ooh do you think you can tell… Heaven from hell.. crazy every time I pick up the guitar that’s the first thing I play! Thank you for the smiles! Thank you for being here and have a wonderful day 🎵🙏❤️
I saw pink Floyd in Glasgow late 60’s. I think I was probably still a school boy. In this long life the most important lesson I have learnt is that on can only work on one’s self and if one is successful then the world changes.
Thanks Charlie! That must have been a great concert! That door definitely only opens to the inside! Thanks for reading and being here! 🙏❤️
Oh I love this essay so much! Thank you for sharing this transformative experience in such beautiful words! It makes me think if the experience was so special because the intention of this concert was to be kind and give back, and this Love was clearly vibrating between the beats! Let's always be kind with ourselves and others, it changes so much! 💕🙏
Thanks Sadhbh! I never thought about that with the free show and gratitude as the energy exchange vs money! More experience and less entertainment maybe? Was beyond kind on his part! Thanks for reading and your support! Bless you 🙏❤️