The black cloud
Sounding like a herd of buffalo rampaging through a valley.
In its...
!
.
deep... DARK,
trembling tenor voice...
It spoke-
Thunder!
Categories:
tenor voice, voice,
Form: Free verse
No sunrise sparkled brighter,
No thunder clapped,
No trumpet sounded at your birth.
You were just born,
Grew to live youth,
To fish back country ponds, summer streams,
Run roadways and highways like a deer,
To work, to marry,
Raise a family,
Retire to loneliness,
To find yourself
Within yourself
In back woods you loved.
Your friends were trees,
As were birds, and clouds and summer flowers
And squash berries.
When you were down, you looked up
To her, your departed love and wife-Annie.
Your joy was in a tenor voice to guitars,
Kitchen sing -a- longs
And cowboy yodeling.
You knew not your time.
No bugle sounded at your death,
The world paid no respects
But we wept there beneath tall trees and mountains,
Where you were laid to rest,
Where mother finally saw you home
And peace was truly yours.
Spruce trees, fish, clouds, ponds and streams
Will all remember you…as I.
W.C.Hull ©2000-2020-20-11-018
Categories:
tenor voice, tribute,
Form: Free verse
How does the music flow?
Subtle single soprano notes and chorals sing out
in whispered melodies, blustery bravado mix doubts
when one tenor voice begins its solos on the rise
blending with the symphony surprise.
At first comes the birthing lullabyes
raising smiles and laughter to a mother's eyes
followed quickly by the growth spurt years
with know it all, rebellious tessitura teenage tears.
A young adult determined to be a trembling soloist
with every decision made too fast, too quickly confessed
in life's lover, warrior, passaggio falsetto blessed
wavering in decisions and earlier dream quests.
Mid life crisis drops us each to our knees
in lack luster timbre bass keys
of pain and loss upon a lifelong analogue
marked high and low with vocal pedagogue.
Time is faded and easily slipping away
contralto hymns flow deep and low yet never stay
as the background orchestra continues the sacred cantata
of life's moments culminating in our final sonata.
Categories:
tenor voice, life, song,
Form: Quatrain
Hands of Surgeons
Our friend Bob Lynott is undergoing
cancer surgery today at Duke University.
God, hands of surgeons be sure to guide;
Who we trust and on them have relied;
Now is not near;
Our prayers hear;
Give them things needed and not denied.
Jim Horn
This should be sent out to each member of
St. James Episcopal Church, Shallotte, NC.
Hope he will be here singing in choir this
Sunday with his great tenor voice.
Categories:
tenor voice, allegory, analogy,
Form: Limerick
My father was a musician, with a beautiful tenor voice. As we seven siblings witnessed his coffin being lowered into that cold earth, a blackbird sang his heart out on the church steeple.
his pure spirit rose
on the softest summer breeze
blackbird into thee
Categories:
tenor voice, cheer up, children, death,
Form: Haibun
On the cool afternoon of a Fall day,
sunshine is replaced with hail clouds,
then the icy rain begins to fall on grass
making the parched robins fly away.
A foggy window with clear raindrops is like
thin, sweaty glasses filled with hard ice;
all one can see is only that solitary tree,
not the misty shore hiding the troubled sea.
Even the black lampposts seem ghostly spires,
while the crystallized raindrops send off gleams;
they are small compared to the huge hail balls
that are hurled to earth and stick on the wet roads.
The chill of the Autumn rain is felt in the shivering bones,
towards home the clearing sky changes its darkening tones;
and opening all windows to the crisp air, I hear a tenor voice.
O soul, breathe in the sweet aroma of the jasmines while I rejoice!
Categories:
tenor voice, april, dark, flower, rain,
Form: Rhyme
So would you shiver
And then start to quiver from
Cancer of liver?
It was terrible
And had been unbearable
When we did find out.
We all prayed a lot
And many tears back had fought
And were highly wrought.
To friend we do love
Save a space while up above
While you wait for us.
Jim Horn
Just found out that a dear friend
at St. James Episcopal with great
tenor voice has cancer of the liver.
Categories:
tenor voice, sad,
Form: Haiku
We’ve painted your smile disarming
Your glassy marbles alarming
Ignored your feeble warning, your face blue
We made our very own papier-mache Prince Charming
In what false light you’ve been hung
Your dreams must in harmony be sung
No solos for your tenor voice, honey
We force your hand on the top rung
From wuthering heights we trumpet
On your trust we rudely strumpet
Don’t resist sweet crumpet, we know best for you
Into infamy now you gladly plummet
Categories:
tenor voice, anti bullying,
Form: Rhyme
Paper Hearts
Paper hearts
Alas desire waltzed.
And thoughts chortled.
Every yearning was
Youthful temptation
And hot love.
Words not found
Shaped a fated soul.
The feast: fleeting feelings,
Put reason away.
Love, laughs
Evening stars
Suburban streets
A tenor voice
Technicolor dreams
Scattered wings
And a parking lot
Tell the tale.
Words soon found
Shaped our loving souls.
The feast: fun filled follies
And full lives.
Pure hearts
Alas, had danced
And thoughts giggled.
Every yearning was
Committed care.
And sizzling…
Affection.
By Dane Smith-Johnsen
2-20-08
Categories:
tenor voice, love,
Form: Free verse
Smokey Robinson
Liquid tenor voice
Poetic lyrics created
Through a life of sadness,
Talent remains
Mother encouraged her boy
to be greatness in song!
I saw a special on Smokey Robinson and it inspired this poem. He was a talented musician
and song writer. Smokey is a product of the detroit car industry boom.
Categories:
tenor voice, art, black-african amer
Form: Ekphrasis