Includes liner notes and a booklet insert with text of all the poems. Front cover artwork by Noble Chute, overall design by Dana Dwinell-Yardley. Back cover is a montage of showy ladyslipper orchids in a fen, Berta the Steinway Model B piano, and Aaron and Sam.
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Meg's Polska honors Meg Mabbs. Hendrix is our featured feline in "The Cat's Morning Song."
lyrics
It drives me crazy
When I can’t get at the object
of my desire.
I know you understand.
I hear you talking
to yourself.
I can see what I want;
Hear it,
Muffled through glass;
Almost . . . taste it:
Pretty fluttering songs,
Quick, darting, chattering fur,
Tantalizing motion.
I remember my youth
When I could pluck sweet birds
from the sky,
Take down big, feeder-fat greys,
with their trophy-plume tails.
Now I watch,
Eating too much,
(For consolation, you understand)
Dreaming here
on the bed by the window,
Opening one eye to the apple tree,
Cocking an ear
to cardinals and chickadees
across the street,
Knowing, wishing
I could . . .
I cry now and then
For the open door,
For the young, lean days,
For desire
Of the sweet, long ago hunt.
I know you understand.
I’ve heard you cry too.
Why don’t you get up?
We can eat breakfast;
You could open that door;
and we could go out
Hunting our dreams.
_______________________________
On the neighbor’s porch
Hot pink, plastic sled,
Color of childhood,
Like bubblegum
Stretched over a ten year old’s tongue,
Impossible to miss,
Even half-buried in snow.
The thin plastic,
Hardly a wall at all
Between buttocks and bumps,
Earth and bones.
As direct as we were then,
Launching ourselves two and three deep
To shriek and jolt down the hard packed hill,
Uncomplicated as puppies.
Taking in the winter world
On our tongues, through our bottoms and bellies,
Our wet, frozen mittens and snow-filled boots.
Now
We walk upright, or drive,
Keeping to paths,
Sedate.
No longer giving ourselves over
to the speed and bubblegum frivolity
of the winters of childhood,
When we knew the air, earth and snow
With intimate innocence.
credits
from Garden Dreams,
released November 14, 2021
Poetry by Susan Reid
Aaron Marcus: Piano, original music
Sam Sanders: Spoken Word
Aaron (they/them) is an extraordinary pianist, concertinist, tune-writer and practitioner of traditional community dance
styles. They tour across the US with "Frost & Fire," "Giant Robot Dance," & "The Turning Stile." Aaron believes in the deep emotive healing power of music. Their infectious exuberance, Earth grounding, and subtle lyricism all connect with the strong rhythms of the dance floor....more
If you want to hear more piano accompaniment, I'm excited to recommend Joanne Garton's 2020 solo fiddle album, "The Bee's Knees" as well--featuring my piano, Berta. Aaron Marcus
supported by 4 fans who also own “The Cat's Morning Song / Meg's Polska - Hot Pink, Plastic Sled / Tiny Robot Dance”
This is an album filled with amazing music but it’s hard to top a track with a rocking moneymusk followed by...a hidden track(!!!) with one of my favorite tunes, Tom Kruskal’s, played by the ones who wrote it! Jack Mitchell