Second Chance Dance: January 2021

Saturday, January 30, 2021

The Ballad of The Wolf Moon 2021: ( A Post Covid 19 Reflection)

The Wolf Moon 2021

"I heave myself out of the darkness , slowly painfully. And there I am , and there he is."

- Jean Rhys

"Goodnight room

Goodnight moon

Goodnight cow jumping over the moon."

- Margaret Wise Brown

"...Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide

The fortune telling lady has taken all her things inside

All except for Cain and Abel and the Hunchback of Notre Dame

Everybody is making love or else expecting rain

And the Good Samaritan , he's dressing, he's getting ready for the show

He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row."

- Desolation Row, Bob Dylan

----------

The Ballad of The Wolf Moon 2021

It was the first day of the new year

The pilgrim cowboy's lament sounded familiar

A wayfaring stranger's voice in the wilderness

Everything was supposed to be alright

But the changes continued the devastation

The truth it was told

It was bold, going home

No thing really ever lasts

That dreaded contagion deflated the two on their passage

Energy zapped and drained last dreams of deceiving hope

And the feared but expected news had come...

The immortal king was dead

In their quarantine left to their own devices

An isolation even they could not share

Where to go from here?

What is past is past, now is now, and that's that

The rough riders ready on call

The sacred dome under siege

The brown eyed girl and the pilgrim stared at the screen aghast in shock

That which was once forever might be left behind

The sister and the daughters,

Nightingales in deep disguise,

Bert and Ernie and that solo companion too

All on the road to a distant town called Emmaus

Lifelines cast in love

"You can't save another

If you can't save yourself"

The mystic junkman of the backstreet singing, singing

The lost angelic choir's voices faded

Saying goodnight to the moon

No time for grandchildren playing

The innocence of discovery lockdown

Their world has been cheated

Do they know what's been denied?

Does it really matter?

Do they care?

The only sound that can be heard

As the last string snaps as it is wound too tight

Is Cinderella and the pilgrim holding onto the sweet sound

Of that grace of what they once had found

Now there's a point to every story

This is what was Homer once wrote

Every life is a soul searching journey

With a secret divine treasure that might be discovered

Some lose faith on the way , Some just get lost in love

First responders watch for raging fires

The truth burning ever present

Where the eternal spark remains

Each decision has repercussions

The hobo soapbox preacher proposed

Not to decide is to decide

Redemption sometimes comes to to those who wait

Is profound eloquence poetry?

The billboard read "writing is knowing"

What do we know as we aimlessly dance along

On the yellow brick road to a place called Disneyland?

Detectives probe with constant queries ...

Why one life lives a lifetime or why another is cut too short ?

The answers lie in the sacrament of connectedness

So goodnight moon

Until as the morning is again broken and the race returns.

- JF Sobecki

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Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens

https://youtu.be/3Rifby1tVE8

Wayfairing Stranger - 1917

https://youtu.be/fp7mdSMNQB0

Desolation Row - Bob Dylan

https://youtu.be/jJxtX8M4UVU

Right Back Where we started from - Maxine Nightingale

https://youtu.be/1gbFfLeHNA4

Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House

https://youtu.be/FTj92GpQABQ

One - H. Nilsson

https://youtu.be/haT8g7oKnns

You Make Me feel So Good

https://youtu.be/ZlnV21PU31s

New York City Serenade - B. Springsteen

https://youtu.be/8EooiBaW1BA

Enjoy Yourself - L. Prima

https://youtu.be/kisr3daNRx0

Midnight Sky - Trailer

https://youtu.be/lwaYSBEiEzs

Anton Oliver ( w Otis)

amdg

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New Blog - Rain and Rivers Revisited: A Journey of a Lost Weekend

Well you may recall I have been working on a piece of fiction for a while now. It is still a work in progress. However, I decided

to release drafts of the first few episodes ( chapters.) Much of the work is completed but I am always cutting and editing.

http://rainandriversrevisited.blogspot.com/

It is difficult to release just pieces at a time as they are created as independent episodes they are also all parts of a larger piece (and picture .) I could share more but I am curious to read or hear your feedback.

I want to thank those friends and supporters who have already provided feedback ...and of course all the folks who have been following my Second Chance Dance Blog ( by the way that will continue.)

The material in the Blog is all copyrighted and cannot be reproduced in any form. Though, I welcome you to share the link and this blog with others .So please when you have a few minutes take a read and let me know what you think. I expect to be posting a series of subsequent episodes shortly.

Thanks....

News of Death

(This is for Coach)

Last night they came with news of death
not knowing what I would say.
I wanted to say,"The green wind is running through the fields making the grass lie flat."
I wanted to say,"The apple blossom flakes like ash covering the orchard wall."
I wanted to say,"the fish float belly up in the slow stream,stepping stones to the dead."

They asked if I would sleep that night,
I said I did not know.
For this loss I could not speak,the tongue lay idle in a great darkness,the heart was strangely open,the moon had gone,and it was then when I said, "He is no longer here"
that the night put its arms around me
and all the white stars turned bitter with grief.
- David Whyte

What Work is

We stand in the rain in a long line

waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.

You know what work is--if you're

old enough to read this you know what

work is, although you may not do it.

Forget you. This is about waiting,

shifting from one foot to another.

Feeling the light rain falling like mist

into your hair, blurring your vision

until you think you see your own brother

ahead of you, maybe ten places.

You rub your glasses with your fingers,

and of course it's someone else's brother,

narrower across the shoulders than

yours but with the same sad slouch, the grin

that does not hide the stubbornness,

the sad refusal to give in to

rain, to the hours wasted waiting,

to the knowledge that somewhere ahead

a man is waiting who will say, "No,

we're not hiring today," for any

reason he wants. You love your brother,

now suddenly you can hardly stand

the love flooding you for your brother,

who's not beside you or behind or

ahead because he's home trying to

sleep off a miserable night shift

at Cadillac so he can get up

before noon to study his German.

Works eight hours a night so he can sing

Wagner, the opera you hate most,

the worst music ever invented.

How long has it been since you told him

you loved him, held his wide shoulders,

opened your eyes wide and said those words,

and maybe kissed his cheek? You've never

done something so simple, so obvious,

not because you're too young or too dumb,

not because you're jealous or even mean

or incapable of crying in

the presence of another man, no,

just because you don't know what work is.

Philip Levine

On Marriage - Kahil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love:Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loafSing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.And stand together yet not too near together:For the pillars of the temple stand apart,And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

A favorite "Journey" poem from a favorite poet

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
-- Mary Oliver

Send or post one of your favorites! They can be lyrics to a song!

Playing For Change

Please see the current music video from "Playing for Change" at the bottom of this page. It is a movement. Enjoy!

"Playing for Change" is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world

Fall in Love

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” --- Pedro Arrupe SJ