IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

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...

Based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti, and put into music by the great Loreena McKennitt.

THE WALTZ WE WERE BORN FOR

xxx

I never knew them all, just hummed

and thrummed my fingers with the radio,

driving five hundred miles to Austin.

Her arms held all the songs I needed.

Our boots kept time with fiddles

and the charming sobs of blondes,

the whine of steel guitars

sliding us down in deer-hide chairs

when jukebox music was over.

Sad music’s on my mind tonight

in a jet high over Dallas, earphones

on channel five. A lonely singer,

dead, comes back to beg me,

swearing in my ears she’s mine,

rhymes set to music that make

her lies seem true. She’s gone

and others like her, leaving their songs

to haunt us. Letting down through clouds

I know who I’ll find waiting at the gate,

the same woman faithful to my arms

as she was those nights in Austin

when the world seemed like a jukebox,

our boots able to dance forever,

our pockets full of coins.

By Walt McDonald, 1934

IT COULD BE A WONDERFUL WORLD

It took me almost twenty years to finally found this song because I really wanted to listen to this again. This was taught to us at school when I was nine and I though it was just one of those children's songs. It is indeed mostly sung by children but I also found out that this was also a song by an American recording artist Pete Seeger. Finally!

If we could consider each other

A neighbor, a friend, or a brother

It could be a wonderful, wonderful world,

It could be a wonderful world, oh-ho

It could be a wonderful world

If each little kid could have fresh milk each day

If each working man had enough time to play

If each homeless soul had a good place to stay

It could be a wonderful world, oh-ho,

It could be a wonderful world

If we could consider each other

A neighbor, a friend, or a brother

It could be a wonderful, wonderful world,

It could be a wonderful world, oh-ho

It could be a wonderful world

If there were no poor and the rich were content

If strangers were welcome wherever they went

If each of us knew what true brotherhood meant

It could be a wonderful world, oh-ho,

It could be a wonderful world

If we could consider each other

A neighbor, a friend, or a brother

It could be a wonderful, wonderful world,

It could be a wonderful world, oh-ho

It could be a wonderful world

WHY HEAR'ST THOU MUSIC SADLY

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Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.

Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,

Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?

If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,

By unions married, do offend thine ear,

They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds

In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.

Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,

Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,

Resembling sire and child and happy mother,

Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing;

Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,

Sings this to thee: "Thou single wilt prove none."

Sonnet 8 by William Shakespeare

BONNY PORTMORE

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O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand

And the more I think on you the more I think long

If I had you now as I had once before

All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see

Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree

For it stood on your shore for many's the long day

Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

SO MUCH FOR DREAMING

xxx

My favorite zombie movie gave me new favorite songs.

Yamaha - Delta Spirit

So cold, I know you can't believe it

Sometimes you gotta face the feelin'

When you don't care if you get up again

There's a thousand things I will not understand

Now you're dealin' with the hell I put you through

If I had my way I would be right there next to you

There's certain things in life you cannot change

There's certain things

I hope you know I care....

xxx