http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Someone
very special to me once bought me an album of the late, great Ella Fitzgerald
called Ella Sings the Blues. She was, of course, a great jazz singer. But, my, couldn't she sing Blues! Mind you, Ella could sing anything and it would leave a lasting impression on the listener.
My late
mother also loved Ella and I remember playing it some years after she died and
thinking maybe she was listening to it, too, in that Great Unknown we call death. I didn't feel in the least bit sad. On the contrary, the experience transcended my sadness to an indescribable feeling approaching enlightenment, and my tears confirmed rather than contradicted it. Moreover, I was in the early stages of recovery from a nervous breakdown at the time and like to think Mum was looking out for me as she always did.
Whimsical,
yes, of course, but...don’t we all do whimsy sometimes?
Photo: Ella Fitzgerald (taken from the Internet)
ELLA
SINGS THE BLUES
How will
it be when I’m dead?
Will I
hear music playing in my head,
see doves fly by in a clear blue sky,
hear a
newborn baby’s very first cry,
and Ella
singing?
How will
it be when I die?
Will I
wing with doves, oh, so high
that I
can look down and see
those
I’ve loved crying rivers for me,
or rivers
run dry?
How will
it be when I’m gone?
World
keeps turning and life goes on.
so where
does that leave me,
courtesy
(hopefully) of a spirituality
come
clean?
How will
it be when I’m dead?
will I
still compose poems in my head,
grieve a
sorry world lost its way
for
listening to what its ‘betters’ say
who
haven’t a clue?
I’ll
never know until I’m dying
but when
I am, be sure I’ll be flying high
among
doves with you, listening
out for
every newborn baby’s crying,
and Ella
singing
Copyright
R. N. Taber 1982; 2010
[From: Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N.
Taber, Assembly Books, 2012]
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