Categories
Playlist Poetry Saturday Expressions

Hard to Swallow: A Playlist Poem Adjacent | Session 17

Hard to Swallow
A Poem dependent upon 15 songs

Runtime: 59min

Iโ€™ve to remind myself
ย ย ย ย ย ย  how I feel has nothing to do
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  with what I can see now
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  for what I see does not function
to produce such un peace
ย ย ย ย ย ย  yet here it arises as if
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I were heroin-deficient
my mind chiming
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  ย you make me feel
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  ย you make me feel

and          how I hate to hear that lonesome
whistle blow

              knowing       itโ€™s our time to
go
       100, 500, 900 miles
from            wisdom, further away as
uncontrolled                  desire blooms,
wounds, pierces all the wrong places,
                births desperation, debases

a toxin edged along the blade
                    a goddamn shame
slit wrists, caught in the undertow
cold as sorrow      I canโ€™t breathe
       Iโ€™ll drown you with me
steeped attachment       deep
       & tormented       held tightly
to my weak mind
       Iโ€™m not alright

I wished it wouldnโ€™t happen
       but here the karma ripened
              and I found it hard

didya think itโ€™d be easy?
              if it was easy, everybodyโ€™d do it too

donโ€™t be the fool & certainly
                     donโ€™t give up
donโ€™t let me steal this moment from you       
now       get through the messy muck
       and find relief, in faithful peace
                     graspingโ€™s           release

but      in ignorance, more so
            tell me that you wonโ€™t let go

Categories
Playlist Poetry Saturday Expressions

Visions | Session 8

Visions
A Poem in 27 Songs

Runtime: 1hr 49min

I keep waiting to
See You Again
walking into
The Place That I Work

If I Hated You
Iโ€™d be
Happier Than Ever
to see
Youโ€™re Not Standing Like You Used To
but I donโ€™t

In Sleep
you become
Something Strange
and I dream
The Road Ahead is Golden
I dream youโ€™re
Elvis
13
times

When Iโ€™m Alone,
Stoned and Alone
or
Staring at the Sun
or 
When the Night is Over
Almost Everything
reminds me of you
has me
Running Home to You
begging you to be my 
Savior

yet youโ€™re running away:
So Human of You
to want to go back to
The Night We Met

while I want
Nothing Else
but to dance in
The Kitchen
the feeling
Comes and Goes in Waves
so I put my 
Heart in a Cage

Letting Go
Iโ€™m protected from
Fallinโ€™

Up Here
Iโ€™m protected from the
Fire and the Flood

for youโ€™re a
Pyro
and my heart is tinder

Categories
Playlist Poetry Saturday Expressions

Lavender Blue | Session 7

Lavender Blue:
A Poem in 30 Songs

Runtime: 1hr 41min

this oneโ€™s
for that
Time of the Season
when I get sad, a
Season Suite: Late Winter, Early Spring
singing Iโ€™m
Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)
sometimes feeling silly (silly)

You Are My Sunshine
at the time of year when sunshine is rare

I hum
Kiss the Girl – From โ€œThe Little Mermaidโ€
and
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
drinking
Scotch and Soda
watching the
Early Morning Rain
it never gets that cold โ€˜round here
just so very (very) grey

I met a
Wayfaring Stranger
on a
Saturday Night at the Movies
before saying 
Adieu
he asked
Is That All There Is?

I still see the
Colours
of his
Morning Nightcap
hear his morning
Bird Song
smell
The Wild Mountain Thyme
outside his door
feel the
Boots of Spanish Leather
a gift, before the dance
The Loversโ€™ Waltz Duet
and
8 Humoresques, Opus 101
[whispering in a foreign tongue]
Poco lento e grazioso

now, I see
The Gathering of Spirits
when I go
Down to the River to Pray
hearing
Tennessee Waltz
in my mind, asking

Where Have All the Average People Gone?
where has he gone?

though I
Keep on the Sunny Side
I think
Iโ€™ll Fly Away
Across the Great Divide

to find
The Yellow Rose of Texas

I Love 
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is

and still
No Other Love
will do 

Categories
Holiday Cheer Music Playlist

12 Days of Christmas | Song 12

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


Merry Christmas! The day is finally here! Although these songs have been arranged in no particular order, I did save one of my most fun and perhaps religiously relevant songs for this special and holy twelfth day.

Introducing – if you’re not already familiar – the spectacular Christmas with Boney M. with one of my all time favourites, Mary’s Boy Child.

Follow up this bop of a holiday jam with When a Child is Born and Feliz Navidad to keep the party going. I remember rocking out to Feliz Navidad with my elementary school choir at the late Colonel John Butler School (which became Virgil Old Colony Christian School – what a name!).

Find my Twelve Days of Christmas Songs Playlist here with the bonus New Year’s themed Diana Krall song.


Grace & Frankie wish you, your friends, and family the most wonderful Christmas, holiday season a Happy New Year!


Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.

Categories
Holiday Cheer Music

12 Days of Christmas | Song 11

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


It’s Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas to all my German friends celebrating tonight! For me, I’m dreaming of a White Christmas … that can happen overnight, right? Does snow even still come to the Niagara Region before January?

We started with Bing Crosby and as this twelve day countdown draws to a close, I am thinking we’ll bring him back. For the first twelve or so years of my life, there is no contest what my favourite Christmas cassette tape was: White Christmas by Bing (I’ll admit his name confused me a little. Still haven’t seen anything like it.)

I have such a lovely memory of celebrating with my mom and watching the movie together. Take me back to the the time of those gorgeous dresses and fur muffs! (Just kidding… sort of) There goes that wistful yearning again ๐Ÿ˜‰


The lovely Grace & Frankie wanted a White Christmas inside the house, so they emptied one of my ornaments all over the floor. After cleaning up the best I can, I’m still finding styrofoam “snowflakes” all over the place!


Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.

Categories
Holiday Cheer Thirsty Thursday

12 Days of Christmas | Song 10

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


On the tenth day of Christmas,
Was I so thirsty
My true love sent
Ten Lords a Leaping
just to dance with me?
๐Ÿ˜ฎ

I’ll admit, this season has its bittersweet moments. There are moments of joy and hope followed by those of wistful yearning. Sarah McLachlan says it better than I do with her beautiful Song for a Winter’s Night.



Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.

Categories
Holiday Cheer Music

12 Days of Christmas | Song 9

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


On the ninth day of Christmas, I should reveal that I am a Michael Bublรฉ fan… when it comes to Christmas music. How could I not be? I’m not a monster. And nothing is more delightful to my ears than Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).

I confess I also enjoy his rendition of Santa Baby.


Grace & Frankie with kitchen Christmas cuddles


Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.

Categories
Holiday Cheer Music

12 Days of Christmas | Song 8

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


I think it’s time to recommend The Home Alone Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, and my favourite version of Carol of the Bells.

I also love White Christmas by Irving Berlin & The Drifters and the choir version of O Holy Night. I enjoy watching Home Alone once every three to five years. So while I won’t be revisiting the movie this Christmas, I might be back round to it next year.


The faces of Frankie ๐Ÿ™‚


Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.

Categories
Holiday Cheer Music

12 Days of Christmas | Song 7

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


Just as important to me and entertaining as Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is Merry Christmas From the Family performed by Rosie O’Donnell and The Chicks (or, as I know them, The Dixie Chicks).

Unfortunately, this song won’t play on Spotify for me. Maybe it will for you! I’ve still included it in my Top Twelve Christmas Songs playlist which I’ll be releasing December 25.

I used to listen to Rosie O’Donnell’s Christmas CD for weeks leading up to Christmas. I had a great range of exposure in my childhood. ๐Ÿ˜‰


Grace & Frankie having a pre-Christmas nap.


Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.

Categories
Holiday Cheer Music

12 Days of Christmas | Song 6

Happy Twelve Days of Christmas! A Christmas Countdown featuring my Christmas favourites (plus pictures of my foster kittens).


I love Elvis’ Christmas Album. It brings back lovely memories of enjoying the holidays with my mom. I love it all from Blue Christmas to I Believe. But I have a special fondness for Peace in the Valley which resounds the true feeling of the season even if it’s not the most Christmasy song on the album.


Frankie finds these Christmas tunes relaxing.


Find my full Christmas Playlist on Spotify here.

Find my full Winter Playlist on Spotify here.