Just One Note From You

Just One Note From You

November 2011

The words you say can change my day,

With just one note from you

I can turn my thoughts and dreams around

I can pick myself up off the ground,

With just one note from you

Some thoughts are just worth noting

Some works are just worth quoting

Some songs are just worth singing,

Over, and over, and over, and over,

The rainbow never once refused to shine

And sometimes when the raindrops fall

And when I haven’t had a call

I feel the tears begin to well

At that point in my despair

Between the raindrops or the teardrops

Or the backdrops of memories,

It is there. In the space between sighs

There a note appears dispelling all my fears

Spelling words and spilling rhymes

Like the rainbow and its lines

My lines appear when some

Hope filled light begins to shine

Then reading note or hearing song

Suddenly there’s nothing wrong

My tears were simply prisms

All the breaks and all schisms

Where once I saw a void

Now I see a space, like the ones that

Mark the place between the notes

In greater space a greater hope

I see lines appear like a rainbow in the sky

And one note, one word is all it takes

To turn the tide to fill the space

To quell the fear, to bring the peace

My ears attentively await

And that next note anticipate

Appalachian Moonlit Night

Like a scene from some young boy’s dreams

She just appeared in those cut off jeans,

Like a page from a magazine,

She walked by like a beauty queen

Thumping heart and a nervous smile,

He looked up and he stared a while

She had the walk and she had the style

Had the look of a girl gone wild

She was Appalachian dynamite

Just one spark and she’d light the night

He was home from mining coal

Night like that there was just one goal

He’d sold his soul for that old black rock

He’d say hello but he could not talk

She walked by and she smiled at him

He felt the surge of a deadly sin

Virginia born and mountain grown

He got a whiff of that sweet cologne

He was getting ready to make his mark

Circling her like a hungry shark

Just as he was about to speak

Felt the hairs on his neck rise high

An old green Ford and her redneck pa,

Just drove in with his shotgun cocked

He took a breath and he stepped aside

He sipped his beer and he swallowed pride

He lost his chance but he saved his skin

Tempting moment but saved from sin

Her pa walked through that old bar door

He dragged her straight across the floor

Girl in left hand, gun in right,

Ain’t no boy gonna win that fight

The miner played some games of pool

It gave his heart some time to cool

It seems that night he played real well

Into his hands the bets just fell

Feeling strong and feeling fine,

Courage gained from sweet moonshine

He drove out to that girl divine

Picked her up in his beat up Chev

High octane and his engine revved

They drove that night to the county line

An old tin ring and some cheap red wine

He married her and he loved her so

They had some kids and they watched them grow

The years go fast and time just flies

They grow up before your eyes

Then ‘fore too long on a moonlit night

His own girl dressed in blue jeans tight

She struts in to some miners’ bar

He jumps in to his beat up car

He gets to the place and he knows the game

Every boy knows why he came

He’ll save her this time ‘n one time more

By dragging her across the floor

Girl in left hand, gun in right,

Ain’t no pa gonna win that fight

Appalachian dynamite

Will find a way to light the night

Miner boy you’d better run

Or that’ll be you with that cocked shot gun

Motionless Revolt

Motionless Revolt

Katrina Boguski

(November 18, 2011)

Standing still upon the spot

Giving power to those who had it not

He sparked a motionless revolt

Dropping arms; he stood upon the holt

He stared silently waiting as he listened

Enemy blood, in noon’s bright sun glistened

Dripping, drop on dripping drop,

His heart now loudly beating; his enemy’s now stopped

Hearing the last pulse as that man died at his feet

His taste for war was made replete

Seeing life fade out from the eyes of that other

He realized then it was his brother

Looking outward to the shaking ranks of frightened souls

Seeing piercing eyes peering out of foxes’ holes

He steadied his resolve and sucked in one more breath of wind

In that moment he was all aware that all are kith and each is kin

Nodding as though bidding clan good day

He turned his kilted form and walked away

Hearing the knell ring out from the kirk

He washed his hands of the devil’s work

That day he stirred the frightened hearts of men

As one by one, he led them through the fen

By the ancient graves they passed

Then each went home to hearth and home to weeping lass

Home to oatcakes, stew and tea

Home to peace and home to Thee

Home to tend the field she sowed

Enmity to amity turning earth where blood had flowed

Dive Right In

Dive Right In

October 3^rd, 2011

Katrina Boguski

Sitting on the dock the other day,

I knew I still had more to say

Not wanting to rock the sea

I waited somewhat patiently

The stones that I once used to throw

Were lined up tightly in a row

Keeping track and keeping time

I stored them neatly in a line

All the rocks and all the words

All the bays and all the birds

Piled up filed up like they should

Feeling anything but good

Rock on rock, they mounted high

Brimstone falling from the sky

Then too much hale and too much rain

Just knocked me off my rock again

Salt of the earth, salt of the sea

A salty dog and a sultry me

Soon we all had more to see

And soon we all had more to be

Rock on, rock steady rock round the clock

Seemed like the wall of sea could talk

She said “Just throw one tiny rock

I’m vast and I can take the shock”

So throw I did, a word or two

And then I threw some off to you

Not knowing you that very well

I thought I might expect a swell

A seaside crash of criticism

A tidal wave of indecision

Splashing surge of pessimism

Followed aft by more derision

But somehow hope surged up instead

Different words than in my head

Meaning more than what was said

Hearing more than what was read

Changing out decaying rust

Replacing it with noble trust

Words just flowed; the speech just rushed

The final demon finely crushed

They started falling from my mind

Words were spoken now in rhyme

Sometimes painful, sometimes fine

Every thought a chant or chime

I’ve seen the tides of Fundy’s Coast

Met Father Son and Holy Ghost

Some tides change your point of view

Expose a different side of you

While turning water into wine

Woke prose and roused it into rhyme

He cast out demons far from shores

And whispered words to saintly whores

“Let he who’s sinless be the first to cast a stone”

With this my imperfections all came in

Reminding me of all I’d been

But insecurity nor duelling doubt

Could not change what I’d worked out

I could not throw more stones in to the sea,

Yet still Two Cents sang on in me

My sanguine side had been set free

So leaving rocks upon the pier

Leaving doubt and leaving fear

In that high tide of your career

Leaving sense and leaving sin

I found the answers deep within

With one fell drop and one fell sweep

Leaving past I dove in deep

Leaving current, leaving tide

I found answers deep inside

What priest once would not let you tell

Might still wash out with rhythmic swell

What confessors would not hear

Might still be whispered in some ear

So casting coins instead of stones or spells

I threw Two Cents into a well

Made a wish but will not tell

Depth of ocean depth of sea

Cannot contain the depth of me

Moving earth and rising deep

Somehow your song fit what I see

Like mamma’s, your Two Cents brought joy into my day

So tell your pop that you have earned your chance to play