Daily Blues & Views

Where will you find me as years go by?      Will you think to look in the shadow       of a mystical mountain? Named and renamed for the footprints      and feathers of those who came first, Or in the pastures that        silver seed sustains. Will I be among the laughing and smiling,      breathing in warm afternoons      or hidden among new family   along a ravaged coastline? Where will you find me as years go by?      amid the vanguard dazed by natural disaster or within the warm      wind that pushes healing and implodes the will of ancestors. Will I be hidden and forever lost,      like the poems that weave through      my leaking imagination at night. Where will you find me?      Or rather, Will you find me                       ...

I learned about two types of lava from a Hawaiian when visiting the Islands about 30 years ago.  He said that there are two words used to describe the two types.  "Ah Ah" is used when mentioning the sharp rocks you walk over with your bare feet.  "Pa hoe Hoe" is the term for the smooth lava that hardens like glass.  The words are onomatopoetic. That is, they sound like what they describe. When people walk over the rough lava they constantly exclaim "Ah Ah" because it hurts to walk on those blunt, jagged surfaces.  On "Pa Hoe Hoe" they say nothing; they just walk. This metaphor can be applied to people as well.  Take the last two presidents, which word slips off the tongue easier Obama or Trump?  Which word has an abrupt sound? It's fun to make that comparison but what does it really mean?  Do we dare judge people by the sound of their name?  Hardly.  But might there be something more here? Names do carry the baggage of connotation....

Some years ago I was part of a 4-man show about the life of Woody Guthrie.  I did spoken word selections from Woody's writings and a duo of musicians played his songs.  I'd punctuate the guitar music with harmonica occasionally as well.  Our 4th man was an old friend of Woody's named Ed Robbin.  Ed had the distinction of being the guy who first put Woody on the radio at station KFVD in Los Angeles.  A writer and activist, Ed had dabbled a bit in directing plays and drama workshops.  It was with that in mind that I once invited Ed to accompany me to a play one evening in San Francisco.  After the production concluded the director invited the audience to remain after and come down to the first few aisles and meet the cast and discuss the play. Ed nodded that he's like to stay.  I'm purposely leaving out the name of the play and any of the cast because that's not what matters.  What matters is what Ed did and said.  After taking some quest...