Update 4-24-2016
It’s been a sad time for the music world the last few months. This week, we lost one of the few true geniuses of the second half of the 20th Century, Prince. Coming so soon after the death of one of the other true geniuses, David Bowie, we are left reeling. Is this the end of the Rock genre?
If it isn’t, it’s still the loss of someone who should not only be admired, but revered. He burst onto the scene when I was in high school. It took the wisdom that sometimes comes from maturity for me to appreciate him. I appreciated Bowie more in those days, but I tended to fixate on Dylan and Pink Floyd, thus depriving myself of the pleasure of recognizing and enjoying the work of geniuses.
I offer this beautiful poem my precious friend and poet Jaehla Harty wrote in tribute. As with all of the poems she shares with me, there is a haunting beauty to her vision. I’m sure Prince would approve.
When Silence Makes Way
some carry with them a message
while some are their own
message
can we dance
now?
can we hear the notes
hovering
just over
our heads
watch
them go, they are traveling
now
to other places...
should we move aside, now?
fall quiet
and simply
listen?
there are times when silence makes way
for something more
than silence
someone painted the world in pastel
color
left echoes for us to muse
upon
note after note after note
is there silence, now?
would that be needed
to make way for one more soul?
note
after note after note...
so this is what it sounds like
when doves cry
for Prince Rogers Nelson
Jaehla Harty