Sonnet: Watching and Waiting for a Friend to Play With
by John Kendall Hawkins
.
In memory of Graham Edge (1941-2021), drummer for the Moody Blues
.
Some friends -- grooving hiply on Dylan, Coltrane, Ska --
laughed out loud when they heard me playing Moody Blues
tunes, singing along with passion, their ganja smoke
filling the attic, their insights genius. They'd joke
about the sound: metaphysics to make you snooze.
But the Moody Blues always helped me find my ka.
Loved the drums on Singer in a Rock and Roll Band,
an intense, mad ballad that decried 'the scorchers
of the earth.' Like Bob Dylan, the Moodys refused
the mantle of conscience to change a world abused.
They got me over the hump of inner tortures
after my Catholicism lapsed and God got canned.
I know I'm out there somewhere, somewhere, already,
marbles lost -- blue, tiger's eye -- left behind, and free.
(Article changed on Nov 16, 2021 at 12:59 PM EST)
