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Tag: audiences

Throw Me Something: terzanelle

Published on July 10, 2025

Just throw me an emoji, mister, if you like my song.
It only took me years to learn and drove my parents nuts,
because it didn’t start so sweet – that happened after long

and tiresome exercise until, somewhere deep in my guts,
I figured out just how to train my blistered fingers right.
It only took me years to learn and drove my parents nuts.

Along the way I learned the way to keep a tempo tight.
Despite being self-centered, I began to listen well,
and figured out just how to train my blistered fingers right.

It was not easy work, in fact, sometimes it was sheer hell,
imagining a world where art and commerce got along.
Despite being self-centered, I began to listen well,

and managed, in my own small way, to sing my simple songs.
I tried to find connections with those people who might hear,
imagining a world where art and commerce got along.

At some point, only recently, the point became more clear:
just throw me an emoji, mister, if you like my song.
I try to find connections with those people who might hear.
Just throw me an emoji, mister, if you like my song.

10 JUL 2025

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Sing Another Song

Published on December 8, 2010

Sing another song:
don’t make it too long,
make sure it’s nice and strong
so we all can sing along.
Sing another one
when the first one is done;
we’ve only just begun
having fun.

Sing something
that makes us feel all right;
something simple,
nothing too demanding.
Sing it like
you’ve always done before;
when you’re finished,
sing it just once more.

Sing another tune:
play the paid buffoon,
make us laugh and swoon,
we’ll give you the moon.
Sing another verse,
the same as the first;
no need to rehearse,
it can’t get much worse.

Sing us one
to get us through the night;
something sweet
that makes us feel like dancing.
Sing it like
you mean each single word;
sing the ones we like,
the ones we’ve heard.

Sing another song:
sing it loud and strong.
If it’s not too long,
we might sing along.
Sing it once again.
Make it never end,
like your life depends
on making us your friends.

08 DEC 2010

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By Request Only: a capitolo

Published on November 27, 2010

Oh, how I love to take requests, while playing,
for songs outside the realm of what I do.
How subtle the reminder I’m not slaying,

in essence, “what we want to hear, ain’t you.”
It’s really quite an overwhelming feeling,
that overwhelms my fragile ego, too;

the knowledge that my style is not appealing,
and folks would rather hear the juke box play.
Each time, I roll my eyes toward the ceiling,

and send the hopeful querents on their way,
while promising their song, which I can’t stand,
is next in the rotation, anyway.

Have mercy, please upon all dance hall bands;
don’t make the sole condition of your staying
the way your favorites turn out in their hands.

27 NOV 2010

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The Same Old Song: a ballade

Published on November 11, 2010

Each night we play, you come to catch the show;
to see and be seen seeing, more to fact:
to smile like you alone are in the know
regarding “hidden treasures” like our act .
Let’s hope the grand veneer won’t start to crack,
and everyone will want to sing along
when next week, at the same time, we’ll be back
to play, almost by heart, the same old song.

Your faces melt in constant ebb and flow.
Sometimes, there’s no one there; sometimes, it’s packed.
The seasons change as students come and go,
but we remain to strum right through the slack.
Some nights, we’re less on stage than out in back,
yet no one says a word or thinks it’s wrong.
You only wonder just when we’ll get back
to play, almost by heart, the same old song.

It’s a grand institution, we all know:
a music that will always take you back
to when you felt alive and free to grow,
before you learned the social art of tact,
to multiply in silence, and subtract
each year when it arrives, and shuffle on,
another faceless card dealt from the stack
to play, almost by heart, the same old song.

Another night: we’re on, and you’ve come back;
the rhythm, like a river, moves us on
and on again, along life’s winding track,
to play, almost by heart, the same old song.

11 NOV 2010

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