Diving for Pearls

[rubydick]

Sometimes a song can crystalize emotions that otherwise require volumes. Here are a couple of those that express what I often feel when I read the news each day. No club, just a gentle nudge, and a dash of irony.

Soldier''s Things
by Tom Waits

Davenports and kettle drums and swallow-tail coats
Table cloths and patent leather shoes
Bathing suits and bowling balls and clarinets and rings
All this radio really needs is a fuse

A tinker, a tailor, a soldier’s things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
Oh, and this one is for bravery
Oh, and this one is for me
And everything’s a dollar in this box

Cufflinks and hubcaps and trophies and paperbacks
It’s good transportation, but the brakes aren’t so hot
Neckties and boxing gloves, this jackknife is rusted
You can pound that dent out on the hood

A tinker, a tailor, a soldier’s things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
Oh, and this one is for bravery
Oh, and this one is for me
And everything’s a dollar in this box

Shipbuilding
by Elvis Costello

Is it worth it?
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy''s birthday

It''s just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we''ll be shipbuilding

Well I ask you
The boy said ''Dad they''re going to take me to task
But I''ll be back by Christmas''

It''s just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding

With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

It''s just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they''ll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again

It''s all we''re skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

 

[MINE!!]

Ah yes.. thank you for posting this Richard!

This is what I SEE when I watch the news and think of my country.

Italian blood runs hot
Under coffee-colored African skin,
Through Vietnamese veins, fed
By a jackhammer Irish heart.

Lithe Iranian hands
Guide a Swedish skirt
Across Parisian legs.

Share an irreverent joke.
She laughs with the warmth of Canada.
Her Samoan smile comes easily.

Ask and she''ll join you in
A Brazilian toast,
A Vatican prayer,
Old Arabian verses
Or Norwegian song.

Argue, if you like. 
She is prone to opinions and forgiving of dissent.
Her Japanese adherence to honor
Is expressed with British civility.

She''s used to disagreement,
And she''ll answer back  --
Greek logic and Chinese wisdom
Are equally at her command.

But don''t touch her.  Never arouse
Her Spanish temper.
Her German sense of purpose.
Her Russian tolerance for grief.
Her Colombian notions of vengeance.

Never arouse
Her Australian, white-knuckled toughness.
Her Native American will
To guard the dirt at her toes.
Her Puerto Rican sense
Of protection of kin.

Never arouse
Her Afghan memory,
Her Israeli flair for reprisal.
She''s wont to undertake
A Mexican vendetta.

And if aroused, nothing can deter her:

Not illness in envelopes.
Not zealots in caves.
Not soot-colored cities or glass in the streets.

Not desert alchemy,
Or the asymmetric threat
Of a holocaust virus,

Not the grimace of a gap-toothed skyline,
Or silence in engine-less skies
As vast iron birds -- once as commonplace as swallows --
Are felled to the ground.

 

[rubydick]

Yes indeed, America is a melting pot. And America was attacked on 9/11. The biggest attacks took place in New York. So answer me just this one question: why didn''t the people of New York, who had suffered more than all other Americans, who had seen with their own eyes the face of terror, just why didn''t they vote for Dubya?

All of those immigrants, all of those foreigners, how come they couldn''t bring themselves to pull the lever for Dubya?

Answer that one.

And here''s your answer, from a New Yorker, Ani DiFranco:

yes,
us people are just poems
we''re 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation
and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it''s part of a pair
there on the bow of noah''s ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please

and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky
and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i''ve seen so far
so far
so far

so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck
dumb and stumbling
over ''oh my god'' and ''this is unbelievable'' and on and on
and i''ll tell you what, while we''re at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that''s been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk''s plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there''s ash on our shoes
and there''s ash in our hair
and there''s a fine silt on every mantle
from hell''s kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour

so here''s a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq
el salvador
here''s a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore
here''s a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman''s voice
here''s a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner''s guillotine
who are shackled there with dread
and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream

cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don''t take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he''d deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever
and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i''ve got no room for a lie so verbose
i''m looking out over my whole human family
and i''m raising my glass in a toast
here''s to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face
give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll

yes, the lessons are all around us
and a change is waiting there
so it''s time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else''s desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever
cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall

and while we''re at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn''t even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?
can you imagine how many paper coffee cups
would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!
it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody''s face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn''t have a clue

look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some *******''s passion play
so now it''s your job
and it''s my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn''t die in vain
sshhhhhh....
baby listen
hear the train?

 

[MINE!!]

Date: 6/16/2005 2:30:11 AM
Author: Richard Hughes
Yes indeed, America is a melting pot. And America was attacked on 9/11. The biggest attacks took place in New York. So answer me just this one question: why didn't the people of New York, who had suffered more than all other Americans, who had seen with their own eyes the face of terror, just why didn't they vote for Dubya?

All of those immigrants, all of those foreigners, how come they couldn't bring themselves to pull the lever for Dubya?

Answer that one...

Ok.. I admit to not knowing what the percentage was for NEW YORK during the presidential election. But I can say that NEW YORK was not the only people affected by 911. AND more than half of the US did pull that lever for BUsh. Wether you like it or not.. the majority still voted for him.

We are ALL immigrants and we ALL voted and more than half of us 'immigrants' voted for BUsh!

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


Pastor Martin Niemöller

 

[movie zombie]

Mine, no, 1/2 the US did not pull the lever for bush...nearly 1/2 of the 38% that voted pulled the lever for bush...and nearly 1/2 did not pull the lever for bush.

i do like your quote though: it is the reason i speak out the way i do.

peace, movie zombie

 

[MINE!!]

touche...MZ

Yet I feel that if you didn''t vote that you had no right to complain....(I use the word ''you'' generally.. not specifically

)

 

[AGBF]

Date: 6/16/2005 5:05:46 PM
Author: MINE!!
Yet I feel that if you didn''t vote that you had no right to complain....

I feel that everyone has the right to complain. I would even go so far as to say complaining is a God-given right. Not voting, however, gives one more to complain about (well, at least in theory) .


Deb

 

[MINE!!]

I give up.. LOL... You guys know what I mean...

I think that if someone is going to complain because they do not like who is in the White House and who represents them.. they need to get up off the sofa and go push that button...

"Funny how all the people who know exactly how to govern the country all work in Barber shops.."

 

[movie zombie]

yep, Mine, i agree with you again.....can you believe it?!

peace, movie zombie

 

[MINE!!]

LOL.. I must be off today..