Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Whatever Gets You Through the Night


As we all are now authors, creators, writers, bloggers, tweeters, philosophers, facebookers, yarn spinners, gossips, ranters, hyperbolic exaggerators and tall tale tellers... how can we discern any truth or quality of thought amidst the myriad voices? And then again, maybe there never was anything that  original said by the poets outside of Shakespeare and a few Greek myths. Oh, I know, I’m being very Western in my thinking, not to mention reductivist and nihilistic. Everybody has a favorite author and truthfully maybe you only remember a phrase or even a single word that stuck with you but somehow that unique parcel of words really resonated for you and made your life better.

Bobby Dylan is quite the wordmeister... and the accompanying tunes only make it easier to remember his poetry.

Don’t the brakeman look good Mama
Flagging down the Double E?
(It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry-- from Highway 61 Revisited album)

And for something a little more cynical from Bob...

Pump don’t work
‘Cause the vandals took the handles.
(Subterranean Homesick Blues—from Bringing It All Back Home album)

So in the space of a few seconds I put my depressive notion to rest. The thought nobody really has anything to say is far from true. Fact is, what do we have except what people have to say. Those people, those viewpoints help make reality real for us by giving it a name, an explanation, a hypothesis. For what is art except a point of view expressed artfully... and we all need art to get us through the night. Science can provide a sleeping pill but the narcotic effect wears off and the thought machine springs back into action.

And in conclusion I refer once again to the eminent Bob Dylan... and Subterranean Homesick Blues... (and make it your Ringtone if you like! Oh there I go getting all jaded and ironic.)

Get sick, get well, hang around a ink well....


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