A Comment On 2 Songs By Gary Grimshaw

A comment on 2 songs by Gary Grimshaw

I heard your song, my son

so clear and yet so lonely in the night.

The enchantment of its melancholy beauty

Transported me through space and time to moon-lit waters of a blue lagoon.

In the quiet of the night, a golden maiden

played a dulcimer. A nightingale

sang a song of youth and beauty

that stirred my senses with such violence

as to test the very sinews that bound me to my reason.

I was once again the young King in the

timeless land.

The golden maiden was my queen.

Though now, we are as strangers when

we meet,

I understand that you are different

from the rest.

In the quiet of the night, when the beauty

of your song stirs my heart,

My lonely soul cries out to you, my son,

----for understanding.

Louis J. Cleage, M.D.

Detroit 3/27/67

(note: the "2 songs by Gary Grimshaw" appeared in WORK/4, published by the Artists' Workshop Press/Detroit)