Hallway to Nowhere

Tag: Cajun music

  • Geographical Luck (Poem)

    The rains have arrived,

    Remnants of the hurricane.

    If I go outside and lift my face,

    Will I taste the salt tang of gulf waters,

    Hear the faint sound of Parlez Nous A Boire drift on the wind,

    Catch the tantalizing scent of my father’s gumbo?

    Or will I find the salt of tears cried by all who’ve lost,

    Hear the shriek of a roof as it is torn away,

    And smell the smoke from fires that cannot be quenched?

    Nostalgia is easy for me,

    For I am in the mountains and far from this devastation.

    I am geographically lucky at the moment.

  • Stay (Poem)

    I think I’ll stay just a little bit longer.

    Life here in the mountains can still surprise me.

    A wood turner who makes steampunk lamps.

    A chef who practices traditional Chinese medicine.

    A professor who tickles trout for photos .

    A dear friend here from far away who is found to be a distant relative.

    (And that latter, I’m convinced, is some sort of Appalachian magic-

    Because in the mountains ALL folks are related!)

    And that’s just to mention people.

    If I were to start talking about these things.

    The way the sky looks when a storm is about to hit.

    The Canadian geese and the train whistle that help rhythm my day.

    The greenery of the town, and my back yard in particular.

    (Ere the six old trees that stand sentinel come down in a bad wind,

    I might not live to write again.)

    And music. Sigh.

    The music strikes a visceral cord in me.

    The same wail that I heard in the old Cajun songs runs through songs.

    So at the end of the day, I feel at home.

    One of my trees.

    And how could I leave a place that produces music like this?