Poem/Song: Highway 9

This morning in church we read the story of Jesus chasing the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple from John (John 2:13-22). The reading reminded me of the second half of a song I wrote several years ago. Chances are slim to none I'll ever get around to recording it (ask me to sing it for you next time I see you though). But song lyrics are a kind of poetry, so I thought I'd share them here. I particularly like the sense of place and time this song evokes for me.

photo illustration by S. King, photos from Ponderosa Lodge '88 and '89

Highway 9

We drove down Highway 9
From Ashton to Rocketown
The sun was up
Our defenses were down
You drove so fast
We didn’t care
About the day & the time
In the rest of the world
We just wanted to be there
On Highway 9
Between Ashton & Rocketown
The radio is loud
There’s enough to go around
Sand in your shoes
Leaves in my hair
We’re in the mountains
And at the beach
We are everywhere
On Highway 9
Between Ashton & Rocketown

If you had told me then
How my life would be today
I’d have told you that’s
Impossible, I will never stray
From Highway 9
Between Ashton & Rocketown
The road’s still there
But it has a new sound
Traffic and noise
Billboards everywhere
I have to make
My own way now
I don’t belong there
On Highway 9
Between Ashton & Rocketown

Song: The Austerity Bomb

illustration by Susanna King

People keep talking about the "fiscal cliff," but Brian Beutler at TPM points out that that's not a very accurate metaphor. He coined the term "austerity bomb," and Paul Krugman picked up the term and ran with it. I agree that "austerity bomb" is much more descriptive, so I decided to see if I could write a catchy song to help popularize the phrase.

Quick caveat: I'm not so good at this recording thing, so please consider this a reference for the tune rather than something to listen to for enjoyment. This song is under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial license, so I hope if you like it you'll record your own (better) version!

The Austerity Bomb song

The Austerity Bomb

Red and blue just can't agree
How to fix the economy
So the standoff doesn't last too long
They went and built the austerity bomb

CHORUS: Who's gonna stop the bomb-ba-bom-bom?
                 Who's gonna stop the bomb-ba-bom-bom?
                 Who's gonna stop the bomb-ba-bom-bom?
                 Who's gonna stop the bomb-ba-bom-bom?

If the bomb goes boom, will it seal our doom?
Hope we don't have to find out soon
Something must be very wrong
If they think they've gotta use the austerity bomb

CHORUS

Speak up now, this is our hour
Make your voice heard by the ones in pow'r
Can't sit still, it's hard to stay calm
Thinking about the austerity bomb

CHORUS

Lyrics with chords (PDF)

Song: Straight Ticket Voter

This year, with South Carolina's elections being so messed up, with so many write-in and petition candidates, it's especially important to think about who you're voting for. If you vote a straight ticket, you may be giving up your chance to vote for some offices, as well as voting for some real lemons.

Here's a little song I wrote about straight-ticket voters:


Here are the lyrics, in case you can't hear them very well over the twangy mandolin.

Straight Ticket Voter

CHORUS:

I'm a straight ticket voter, 

Don't want to think it over

'Cause I believe the party line right to my core

I just push that button 

And I don't worry 'bout nothin'

'Cause I know our crooks and liars are better than yours

Well this candidate is shifty 

And he isn't very thrifty

He drove his daddy's business straight into the ground

His nanny is illegal

And he shot his neighbor's beagle

But he's one more vote for our side, so let's keep him around

CHORUS

Well this candidate ain't stellar

But she's written a best-seller

Her list of wealthy donors is half a mile long

To the party she is loyal

Though she has some friends in oil

But the ethics charge against her really isn't very strong

CHORUS

Yes, I know our crooks and liars are better than yours

Sailormoon on the Mandolin

Image from Anime News Network

George gave me a Jam iPad instrument interface for Christmas. I recently tried it out using Garage Band for the iPad. It works pretty well, and playing around with the different amps and effects is fun.

Here's a straight-up recording of me playing the closing credits from Sailormoon R:
Otome No Policy on the mandolin (mp3)

Who Can Be a Poet?

The other day on NPR's Morning Edition, I heard a story about the death of Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska. The journalist read some of her poems; they made my jaw drop in shock and my eyes brim with tears.

Szymborska wrote about scientific things, abstract thought, other worlds created in her imagination. I had no idea that poetry about such things could be worthy of publication, let alone a Nobel Prize. I've read a lot of poetry, but mostly the classics, the stuff you're expected to read in high school and college survey courses. I thought poems had to be about human nature and gritty reality to be taken seriously.

The Mountain Goat was a student-published literary journal at my college. My friend Catherine and I tried many times to get our poetry and short fiction accepted for publication by The Mountain Goat. We never succeeded. I thought our poems didn't have enough angst and big words, she thought they didn't have enough sex. We never found out why they didn't accept our submissions, but those rejections definitely had an effect on how I thought of myself as a writer.

I decided that my poems were probably just too weird, and that I just wasn't a very good poet. I gradually wrote fewer and fewer poems, stopping completely some time in the late 90's.

But I never stopped writing songs. Really, songs are just poems set to words. Nobody could tell me that I didn't write good songs because I knew in my soul that my songs were good (maybe not all of them, but a healthy majority). I'd been writing songs since I was five years old and studying music for just as long. I accepted that I would never be any kind of poet and just kept on writing songs when the inspiration struck me.

And now, all these years later, I find out that my thoughts aren't too weird for people to read. Other people may also be fascinated by the complicated and esoteric things that interest me. There's no reason to rein in my creativity: the world is big enough to let it run free.

I hope to write some poems soon about the internet and nuclear technology and things like that. (I once wrote a song about synapses in the brain - I really ought to resurrect that one.) In the meantime, here's the song I wrote about all my rejections from The Mountain Goat. When I have time, I hope to record it so you can hear the tune.

My Words Are Simple

My words are simple
Because I have to understand what I say.
Some argue that's not right for a poet.
I will sing anyway.

No great ideas,
Just the feelings that I have at the time
Are turned into words on some paper:
A song that is mine.

Perhaps the meter
Is beating time in my head alone.
If you throw up your hands and ignore me
I can sing on my own.

Jealousy, anger, desire and pain,
Joy and longing and love:
These are emotions I have in my brain,
Real feelings that I know of.
(And I did that on purpose.)

My words are simple
Because I only write of what I know.
And if that doesn't interest the critics
I will sing anyhow.
These are my feelings
And my words to say,
And I will sing anyhow.