who I wonder
did he sing to
not in night clubs
in Vegas
or in film
but in those lonely hours
with the bottle dry
or in the studio booth
pouring that heart
onto vinyl
for those of us
with empty bottles
at 2am
songs
on listening to Carmen McRae
come on in
from the cold
on that long way home
and Carmen
gives me wings
needed to fly
home
to New York
even if only
in my mind
From Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman: the opening paragraphs from Chapter One
IT BEGINS, as most things begin, with a song.
In the beginning, after all, were the words, and they came with a tune. That was how the world was made, how the void was divided, how the lands and the stars and the dreams and the little gods and the animals, how all of them came into the world.
They were sung.
The great beasts were sung into existence, after the Singer had done with the planets and the hills and the trees and the oceans and the lesser beasts. The cliffs that bound existence were sung, and the hunting grounds, and the dark.
Songs remain. They last. The right song can turn an emperor into a laughingstock, can bring down dynasties. A song can last long after the events and the people in it are dust and dreams and gone. That’s the power of songs