Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the month “June, 2013”

Hitchcock’s Revenge

There was something eerie about last night. Not sure what. It reminded me of this …which I wrote a long, long time ago. Seems he always comes to mind when things bump in the night.

Photo Credit: Fanpop

Movements through shadows belonging to no one

Bright lights shining in quiet cold darkness

Sharp breezes blowing without a direction

Sounds unexplained that are heard out of sight

Echoes of footsteps that never come closer

Distant rumbles from lighting unseen near the trees

Shapes that are formed with the blink of an eyeball

Large looming clouds that light dull in the night

Heartbeats go faster and breath’s become shorter

As mysterious movements rush past in the dark

With eyes that follow but don’t have a face

The full moon once glowing sinks into the marshes

The night grows colder with death in the air

The mind plays tricks when Hitchcock enters-

“Good evening”, good night and goodbye to them all

From “An Even Break” by © MGert September 23, 1976

All Things Must Pass

All Things Must Pass

All Things Must Pass

More frequently these days I recall how precious life is. It is very fragile. We have our chance to look at life from many ways. But in the end it all will pass.  That’s why I share this song from the late George Harrison.  It has always been one of those songs that captures the spirituality of the passing of time. 

Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t  last all day
Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

Sunset doesn’t last all evening
A mind can blow those clouds away
After all this, my love is up and must be leaving
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
None of lifes strings can last
So, I must be on my way
And face another day

Now the darkness only stays the night-time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away

A VIDEO FROM VH1 – George Harrison’s last live performance before his death.

The Meaning of Love

Rose Close Up

Before I was in love with my wife, I had an idea of what love was. A deep feeling of passion and remembrance. A way to feel that was part of songs and poetry.

Time had captured a high-school romantic way to know about desperate love and the pain when it was over. Everyone has a different definition, but the verb “to love” I have learned has a meaning depending on where you started and how you got there.

After I fell in love with my wife, I realized how easy it was to be fooled into believing you were “in love.”  It is so much more once you know that love means more. It’s really unfair, because until you know that kind of love- you can’t understand it.

And once you do know that love, you cannot explain it to anyone quite exactly the way it is. But people will tell you they know, that they are aware of it. Perhaps they do- but only you and her will know for sure.

And then they we to capture it by making a “day” out of it.  On this day my wife and I celebrate an “anniversary”- another milestone in which to track the movement of life. It has been decades of love with my wife. We have experienced pain, elation of children in our lives, the passing of parents and the loss of one of our children to something we could not for-see. We have moved to many cities, experienced many lessons over time. We are here to tell each other it will all be fine– we are together in God’s love. We understand much about love. Not everything mind you, but much of love and the life we have led together.

Bearing The Wait

Rose Close Up

The longest day must have its end

Every man must lose a friend

Time won’t wait for any hater

Dying can’t be done any later

 

So mourn the sick, bury the dead, and let the words flow free

The only answers to love gone bad will never come to me

It seems like today will never end, tomorrow isn’t coming

A crowd of people stare at you; they’re so cold its numbing

 

[Bridge]

If love is timid, it’s not true

Life is what you make it do

Love the truth, pardon error

Ask the mirror who’s the fairer

 

Fight for your wants, build your wills, and be satisfied you’re living

It may only be a silent love, but love is for the giving

Ask the questions in your mind, hope is right for now

A time will come when you will know, you’ll do it anyhow

 

[Chorus]

The longest day must have its end

Every man must lose a friend

Time won’t wait for any hater

Dying can’t be  done any later

This is from a song I wrote in January 1974. It really didn’t mean anything in particular if I recall (it has been a while) but I was just breaking up with a girlfriend at the time and I am sure I was heart-struck some how. I will have to get these songs documented somehow. It is funny how even all these years later I remember the melody of it.  From “Love Songs for a Lonely Night”  © MGert 1974

From The Summer Porch

Mandeville, Louisiana. Relaxing on the front p...

Relaxing on the front porch.                                    (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days of June remind me of this verse I wrote many years ago…..

A quiet morning followed by a humid afternoon worth rambling

From the front porch you can hear the city working out its living

Bicycles click by, their passengers running a soft breeze toward the lake

Mid-afternoon heating the sidewalk and shuffling the insects

 

All is still as the sirens chase a distant problem in the mid-town

Suburban AM radio blasts sunbathers in a nearby crabgrass yard

Cloudless days one after another sweating out the summer sky

The five o’clock whistles blow in unison from the smoggy foundry streets

 

Lines of cars and busses roll by to headlines and bar-b-que dinners

A young couple stroll by acting out a Coke commercial love affair

A red sun casts shadows on the softball cyclone fence unlimited

Dusty bird coast through the thick air calling sundown songs

 

Night approaches from the east a chalky sky of grey and blue

The night slips in on cricket calls and a wet wind from the lake

Cars flash lights across the lawnchair porches and picture window lives

It’s another July evening in the Midwest point of view

 

It’s another calendar sunshine waking on the lake front

As someone said from the window screen “another scorcher coming”

Just a quiet morning followed by a humid afternoon worth rambling

From the front porch you can hear the city working out its living

There were days when I was younger during the summer vacations from school that my friend and I would sit on the porch for the entire day, slumped back on the old chairs that were sitting by the doors. We would open a beer and listen to music and watch the world go by. This was something from those days….

July 25,1976 from “An Even Break” by © MGert 

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