Playing The Blues

~ Lynne Burnett

Painting by Lenore Conacher

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.

17 thoughts on “Playing The Blues”

  1. 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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    1. 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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    1. Wow, Ken, thank you so very much for choosing to read this one and I’m so happy it resonated with those there! It’s an ekphrastic poem so it’s especially great it was liked as is, no art to refer to!🙏😘

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      1. It was an open mic after featured readers, so during the break I flipped through my phone to find one of your poems. Maybe it was a subconscious choice, because the last of my poems I read was one of my random riffs (Rainy Day) that seemed like a natural after your poem.

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