Dentist’s office sun rises shines Imprisoned by shadows stripes Thinking grinding gnashing teeth Some impressions made Brain numbed by Novocaine Lips lost face sags “Open wider” whirring drill Splashes suction smoking still One imagines gaping holes Picking drilling air-blasts woe Fitting carbon paper bite Drilling fitting bite again Glued fitted bite down hold No brushing eating or floss don’t chew For three weeks until we call To anoint the crown give proper reign Don’t let that temp one fall
We talk My world opposite yours Your today is my tomorrow My today is your yesterday Through your voice I see the future Through my voice you glimpse the past When I see the light, you stand in darkness When darkness engulfs me, your light shines My summer is your winter When you spring, I fall Your world opposite mine We talk
Eleanor at You Lil Dickens posted Ask Yourself with the question “Why is Poetry important to you?” I answered:
Poetry expresses many things we cannot layout as plain thoughts, words or deeds. Poetry allows us to mask reality in mysterious verse, soften hard realities, drive home points that need to be made. We can expose our deepest secrets, friendly or foul, in abstruse rhymes and mysterious lines left to the reader to unfold, and decode. Poetry is an avenue to express our feelings about life and death, love and rejection, freedom and oppression, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, sexuality and abstinence, belief and unbelief, good and evil. Through poetry we can express all the symptoms, right and wrong, of being human.
I am super excited about this collaboration between Resa at Graffiti Lux Art & More and ArtGowns, and me. Resa mentioned that the construction project to replace the 130 year old sewer lines that run under the street in front of where she lives in the old area of Toronto, Canada goes on “all day and all the night through!” I told her that would make a good parody. Resa wrote the parody lyrics to go to All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks. I go the music and recorded the first round with my vocals. I sent the music to Resa and asked her to try singing her parody. When she sent me the audio file of her vocals, I was like “Wow!” she sounded super good. I mixed her vocals in with the music, Resa sent me video clips and photos of the construction from her window, and I put the parody music video together. Laurie was reviewing the video and she thought there needed to be more desperation in the chorus, and asked if I could add construction sounds to the chorus. I pulled the scraping sounds off a backhoe video and added snippets of the scrapping and clanking to the chorus and solo. That was enough to give a better sense of desperation to the parody.
When Resa first told me about the construction I really felt sorry for her. When we lived in Madrid, Spain, the city constructed a new Metro stop about 100 feet from the apartment building we lived in. The construction noise went on 24/7 for a year. It was horrible. However, we were not in lock down, and so it was easy for us to simply go to parks, museums, and bars to get away from the noise. Toronto is still locked down with stay at home orders, so Resa cannot simply say the heck with it, go out and get away from it all. She can go on walks, but she is very limited in her activity under the lock down orders.
ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT THROUGH By Resa McConaghy
Oh they have got loud work to do in the day time Evac, jack hammers and backhoes too, all the night through There is no time nowhere to hide losing my mind too It’s cruel they pound and crash then roar all of the time
All day and all night through All day and all night through All day and all night through
I believe this crazy work will always be there Oh yeah all day and night time through – PTSD There is no time nowhere to hide losing my mind Evac, jack hammers and backhoes too, not a good time
All day and all night through All day and all night through
Oh go away
I just know that they will be here forever Oh yeah all day and night time through, fixing the sewer There is no time nowhere to hide losing my mind Oh they have got loud work to do in the day time
All day and all night through All day and all night through All day and all night through