Monday, Monday

please note: pictured is the first album I ever bought



Ode to the Vinyl Record


by Thomas R. Smith



The needle lowers into the groove

and I'm home. It could be any record

I've lived with and loved a long time: Springsteen

or Rodrigo, Ray Charles or Emmylou

Harris: Not only the music, but

the whirlpool shimmering on the turntable

funneling blackly down into the ocean

of the ear—even the background

pops and hisses a worn record

wraps the music in, creaturely

imperfections so hospitable to our own.

Since those first Beatles and Stones LPs

plopped down spindles on record players

we opened like tiny suitcases at sweaty

junior high parties while parents were out,

how many nights I've pulled around

my desires a vinyl record's cloak

of flaws and found it a perfect fit,

the crackling unclarity and turbulence

of the country's lo-fi basement heart

madly spinning, making its big dark sound




Comments

  1. Great selection today. One of my favorite albums and the poem was perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Girls are heading to the canyon.......

    Love M+P.

    Waving from rainy Manhattan

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember when we went out and bought that album--I lived on SW 66th Street, OKC, OK--and my father pitched a fit when we brought it home. Ha! Ha! Ha! Still hear "All the leaves are brown..." in deepest France.

    ReplyDelete

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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