idea

I have some of my favorite poems up on my wall, poems from Hopkins and Eliot and the like, and one called "idea" by my friend Ben. One night in the dorm, I was sitting at the desk playing my guitar and looking at the poems, and I began putting a tune to "idea." This is what came out.

Words by Ben (originally posted here). Music by David.



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i have an idea -
let's put the top down and drive to a place where
we've never been before and lay

in grass and leaves that aren't yet
dead, they still have colors -
red, yellow, orange, and brown.
autumn, please don't count your dead before
winter's darkness buries them.

until then, i have an idea -
let's grow our hair and shout our secrets from
the bottom of thick-trunked trees

whose bark is cold to the touch when
we climb into its carousel of
twisting arms and forgotten fingers that
we give names to and make remembered as the
southern wind bends them in its shivery chill.

i have an idea -
let's drink steamy coffee and tangle limbs when
you can't hear me whisper words

of love into your untrained ear
that never senses growing weeds where
travelers stop to catch a breath and wrap their hands
and brush their cheeks and cover up when
no one cares to build a fire.

hey, i have an idea -
let's gather jackets and vests and scarves
and pack our bags for a trip where

we don't know where we're going until
the train stops screeching in the central
station of some great city with soft-white windows,
like bearded men with newspaper sleeves,
who ride coattails through fluorescent streets.

i have an idea -
let's learn to dance before december arrives
so we can foxtrot through the wintertime.