when clouds march…

by Neil Waldman “From Above” in oil

 

sometimes clouds are blue
and march: military might:
strut across the sky!

 

singing of The Battle Hymn of the Republic by the Army Marching Band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6AOGRsR80

Battle Hymn

Please click on this link to hear the Battle Hymn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6AOGRsR80

 

It was on this date in 1861 that Mrs. Julia Ward Howe sat down and wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The poem was first published in the February 1862 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, and later set to the popular melody “Glory Hallelujah.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, November 19, 2019


Gettysburg Address
by Abraham Lincoln
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
 
“Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln. Public Domain.

in His hands…

He’s got the whole world in his hands… the iddy biddy baby…..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQJRs5w9h4U

hands sign

hands hold

hands tell

love lasts

listen

art by Ya Ja

try

Pavarotti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-K2aG8YHLY&w=620&h=349

drumming on my Soul

Che Malambo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9xHmZJsOm4

.

across the globe drums

the roar of feet, cries of vim,

committed athletes!

Discovering Woodstock, NY

Love is like the grass, but the heart is deep, wild rock. DH Lawrence

Drove from Hudson to Woodstock
to Upstate Movie Theater
to view Redford’s film “The Company You Keep”
http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/2r0l6TBszwo

Arrived 2 hours before the show
to see George Conant playing keyboard on the stage.

He invited us to come to theater
on Sundays, around noon to hear the live house band.

The heart of Woodstock is musicians.
Poems on Tuesdays, bands every night.
The vocalists can’t commit to every rehearsal
Too little control over the deep, wild rocks.

George learned piano, but plays guitar and bass;
Staging with the ghosts of past Woodstock Gatherings.

“Where should we eat?” I ask,
“And can we bring back a fish taco for you?”
Mexican restaurant with jalapeno lights and 100 masks
from El Salvador and Guatemala.

“No charge for tickets” George offers.
“Food costs more than ticket fee.”

“This is our last 35mm film showing” George announces.
“Digital from now on.” Gray heads marvel at the speed
Of media’s rocketing through the deep, wild rocks
Into 3D.
We’re spellbound with the film, and Woodstock’s stage:

Deep, wild rock dreams
for young and old
pull our heart strings!