is to find pleasure in postponing
happiness awhile, letting the lights
dim, and go to those rivers
you have drowned in before
where lament, bronzed with
longing, hovers in the air,
and fill your lungs with it.
Melancholy is gorgeous when
it’s not just yours: no grape
more often crushed
for its fabulous blue note,
no glass emptied as slowly,
the bubble-burst of sorrow
like champagne on the lips,
no melody more played,
strung, as it is, like a bridge
you can cross now—
weep of the guitar,
moan of the sexy saxophone:
all that was,
and all that might have been.
I had the concept of “saudade” on the brain this morning, probably because of Ada Limon’s introduction to today’s poem on The Slowdown. My poem was written quite some time ago and was inspired by a painting by local artist Lenore Conacher.
Lynne Burnett 
Beautiful … love melancholy as melody as bridge letting me traipse back across time and see old scenes in a slightly new light … Blues music relaxes my brain’s defenses, lets me touch old longings w/o getting trapped in them.
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Thanks Jazz! Glad it touched a chord! Yep that’s the secret eh, not getting trapped in them!
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I love how you crushed Keats’s grape of joy to extract it’s “blue note” — wonderful!
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Thanks so much, Stephanie!😘
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This may have been written “quite some time ago,” but it captures the essence of the intro and poem at The Slowdown.
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Oh that’s great, Ken, thanks – written at least 15 years ago and this is its first publication lol! I love the Slowdown!
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Stirs my soul.
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Oh! And does that ever stir mine!😘 Thank you VJ!
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Welcome!
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I love this – lament bronzed with longing – wow! I’ve been rereading it. My wife tells me I should read poems out loud but I am so fond of the silence. Nice to “here” you….
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Oh, thanks so much, Dan! I like poems both ways – out loud I can appreciate sonic qualities, and read silently, I love that it’s all mine – dropping into the well of me and rippling through.
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It’s a special thing, this passing of poetry through you…..
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Yes – but I hadn’t articulated that feeling until your “silence” comment, so thanks again!
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