Tag: the tragically hip

Prompt Day 22

vagabondprophet:

I lilt and sway

Just like Gord’s voice

When he sang Fiddlers Green,

Soundtrack for my life.

Sinclair drops the bass,

Fay crashes cymbals,

Paul and Robby plucking strings,

Like wizards to make waves

For the words to dance all over,

Like the wind in a storm,

A real nautical disaster.

Yer not the Ocean but the surface is green

And the dark interweaves

In a lonely iridescence,

It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete.

Just like the ocean.

Loving your country, playing songs of small town news,

I can teach my children about the nation

With rock and roll.

Canada divided into thirteen parts,

A discography of thirteen albums,

No coincidence.

The most honourable thing yet,

That you evolved to challenge a nation

Unknowingly flawed, abusive.

Adoring your home, but not calling it perfect

True patriotism, true love always seeks to improve.

That’s just what you did

You are ahead by a century.

Now Downie gone,

But his voice will ring out forever,

As he walks among the stars.

I still lilt and sway

Just like Gord’s voice

When he sang anything,

Soundtrack for my life.

– Vagabond Prophet

          – for ‘ The Tragically Hip’, quotes throughout this poem from their songs: Nautical Disaster, Yer not the Ocean, Fiddlers Green, Ahead by a Century, The Drop Off.

        – If you don’t know this band you should, He rhymes Catharsis with ‘My arse is’. If that’s not a clever lyricist I don’t know what is.

Can’t believe its been a whole year since we lost him.

Prompt Day 22

I lilt and sway

Just like Gord’s voice

When he sang Fiddlers Green,

Soundtrack for my life.

Sinclair drops the bass,

Fay crashes cymbals,

Paul and Robby plucking strings,

Like wizards to make waves

For the words to dance all over,

Like the wind in a storm,

A real nautical disaster.

Yer not the Ocean but the surface is green

And the dark interweaves

In a lonely iridescence,

It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete.

Just like the ocean.

Loving your country, playing songs of small town news,

I can teach my children about the nation

With rock and roll.

Canada divided into thirteen parts,

A discography of thirteen albums,

No coincidence.

The most honourable thing yet,

That you evolved to challenge a nation

Unknowingly flawed, abusive.

Adoring your home, but not calling it perfect

True patriotism, true love always seeks to improve.

That’s just what you did

You are ahead by a century.

Now Downie gone,

But his voice will ring out forever,

As he walks among the stars.

I still lilt and sway

Just like Gord’s voice

When he sang anything,

Soundtrack for my life.

– Vagabond Prophet

          – for ‘ The Tragically Hip’, quotes throughout this poem from their songs: Nautical Disaster, Yer not the Ocean, Fiddlers Green, Ahead by a Century, The Drop Off.

        – If you don’t know this band you should, He rhymes Catharsis with ‘My arse is’. If that’s not a clever lyricist I don’t know what is.

I had this dream where I relished the fray

And the screaming filled my head all day

It was as though I’d been spit here

Settled in, into the pocket

Of a lighthouse on some rocky socket

Off the coast of France, dear

One afternoon four thousand men died in the water here

And five hundred more were thrashing madly

As parasites might in your blood

Now I was in a lifeboat designed for ten and ten only

Anything that systematic would get you hated

It’s not a deal nor a test nor a love of something fated

The selection was quick, the crew was picked in order

And those left in the water

Got kicked off our pant leg

And we headed for home

Then the dream ends when the phone rings

“You doing all right?”

He said, “It’s out there most days and nights

But only a fool would complain”

Anyway, Susan, if you like

Our conversation is as faint a sound in my memory

As those fingernails scratching on my hull

Nautical Disaster by The Tragically Hip

She gave me matches
Seven wooden matches
She put them into a small, slim glass jar
With a screw-top lid

I fingered that jar
I put it in my pocket
She said, ‘Can’t go into the woods without them’
I smiled at her and left

And I kept them dry
And as long as there were six
I’d be fine
As long as there were five
Matches in that jar
Mile after mile
On the chick-chick chick-chick sound of the matches
On the memory of her smile

I kept them dry
And as long as there were five
I’d be fine
As long as there were four
Matches in a jar
With a screw-top lid
I know she did not mean to hurt my feelings
But that’s what she did

And I kept them dry
And as long as there were three
I’d be fine
As long as there were two
Matches in that jar

Gord Downie

This song broke my heart. It’s entitled “Seven Matches” off the Secret Path album. The whole album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack trying to find his way home after running away from his residential school in Ontario. He never made it home. I found it so sad that he gets to two matches and then the song just kind of dwindles and ends. You need to listen to this album and it helps if you read along with the graphic novel by the same title, it’ll ruin you but you’ll be better for it.

(via vagabondprophet)

She gave me matches
Seven wooden matches
She put them into a small, slim glass jar
With a screw-top lid

I fingered that jar
I put it in my pocket
She said, ‘Can’t go into the woods without them’
I smiled at her and left

And I kept them dry
And as long as there were six
I’d be fine
As long as there were five
Matches in that jar
Mile after mile
On the chick-chick chick-chick sound of the matches
On the memory of her smile

I kept them dry
And as long as there were five
I’d be fine
As long as there were four
Matches in a jar
With a screw-top lid
I know she did not mean to hurt my feelings
But that’s what she did

And I kept them dry
And as long as there were three
I’d be fine
As long as there were two
Matches in that jar

Gord Downie

This song broke my heart. It’s entitled “Seven Matches” off the Secret Path album. The whole album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack trying to find his way home after running away from his residential school in Ontario. He never made it home. I found it so sad that he gets to two matches and then the song just kind of dwindles and ends. You need to listen to this album and it helps if you read along with the graphic novel by the same title, it’ll ruin you but you’ll be better for it.

(via vagabondprophet)