I have just discovered that I was very wrong. Although I believed it to be true, I have discovered that it is not easy to compose a poem by switching the words to a favorite one, like "Twas the night before Christmas..." I started out okay, "Twas the week after Christmas and all though the land..., then something catchy about retailers and kids with candy canes. It rhymed but did not make sense. Like many a Neil Diamond song.
You already know that I love Neil Diamond and received his latest CD (almost called it an album) for Christmas. But really, down through the decades, I have discovered that his music, like my poem, rhymes but the lyrics have often sacrificed thought pattern and grammar for poetry. This endears him to me.
Some examples:
"She feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China." Google China and you find that China is not the citrus crop capital of the world.
"And no one heard at all, not even the chair...."
"Money talks, it don't sing and it don't dance, but it can walk..."
"Song sung blue weeping like a willow, song sung blue sleeping on my pillow..."
And on it goes. However it is these very lyrics and music that have now placed Neil in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I might say, "And not a moment too soon," but I would be wrong. This honor is years in coming, long overdue and a bruise if not a black-eye on the committee who chooses the Inductees that have not acted until now to let him take his rightful place.
But back to those lyrics for a moment, lest we forget:
It's Love Brother Love say Brother Love's traveling salvation show
Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies and everyone goes
'Cause everyone knows Brother Love's show
Tomorrow I am driving five hours to my twice-yearly seminary Intensive week. Five hours. Five hours of Neil singing "You don't bring me flowers anymore," "Captain of a Shipwreck," and "Kentucky Woman." I am very much looking forward to the drive and may just go the speed limit and stretch it out to five hours and a half.
And that's what I think about it.
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