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LITERARY NOOK
Valentine Moods and Vicissitudes
“Musick and Poetry have been acknowledg’d Sisters,
which walking hand in hand support each other…”
—John Dryden (1631-1700), English poet who wrote words, lyrics, and poems for many years as a collaborator with Henry Purcell (1659-1695), an English music composer.
If Music is the Food of Love
If music is the food of love then poems are loves thought
if music soothes the savage beast poems are not least
words of love can woo and weave when love is sought
if music is the bread of love poems make it rise like yeast
Sing out with poems when you are filled jump for joy
listening to them let your whole body and soul move
music has melody, harmony, and tunes for hoi polloi
ballads, blues and boogie will get you in the groove
Hear Masses by T. Tallis, H. Schutz, Hildegarde von Bingen
J.S. Bach, Mozart, Handel, and sing the Hallelujah chorus
Mahalia Jackson, Spirituals, Gospel songs keep us singing
Classic Opera, rock and roll, blues songs will seldom bore us
So keep music alive with friends, in school, and in your homes
remember many songs begin with lyrics, rhymes and poems.
Fraught With Love Thought
“Wrought all my loss; O frowning Fortune! cursed, fickle dame;
For now I see Inconstancy.”
—William Shakespeare
My love fraught, sought, caught, and tangled for naught
My love thought not that it was her love that I sought
My eyes saw less and less of what became love’s mess
Though my arms reached out their hugs were in doubt
Sometimes things were amiss, sometimes a rejected kiss
Love seemed to be denying all my fretting and fervent trying
Of my fidelity and faith in that love she seems to be defying
My heart is not buying all the moaning heart sobs, and crying
Which is destroying our bliss, the very reason for all this
It seems as if all my love poems to her have been forgot
Now I’m confused and don’t know if she loves me or not
My old romantic heart is baffled, broken and bleeding
No one knows the troubles I’ve seen and help I’m needing
Fraught with all these love thoughts I continue pleading.
JOEY ‘PEPE BATBON’ CONNOLLY (Special to the Saipan Tribune)
Joey aka Pepe Batbon is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.
