A road travelled every day
soon comes unhitched from the horizon.
You can switch roads or you can dance in place.
The fiddle player says:
I like to stare out the car window
& dream about staying put & growing roots.
You can dance in place or you can jam.
The banjo player says:
I never learn the tune as a whole, only its parts.
I remember the one little thing that’s different
& the rest takes care of itself.
You just keep jamming until something jells.
OTHER POSTS IN THE SERIES
- Catskin Banjo (videopoem)
- Medicine Show (videopoem)
- Shackleton’s Banjo (videopoem)
- The Banjo Apocalypse (videopoem)
- The Silent Banjo (videopoem)
- How Jefferson Heard Banjar (videopoem)
- Banjo vs. Guitar and Out of Tune (videopoems)
- Luck (videopoem)
- Banjo Origins (3): Jesusland
- The Fifth String (videopoem)
- Banjo Proverbs (videopoem)
- The Banjo Apocalypse
- Medicine Show (1)
- How Jefferson Heard Banjar
- Catskin Banjo
- The Dueling Banjo
- Medicine Show (2)
- Open-Backed Banjo
- Banjo vs. Guitar
- Banjo Origins (1): The American Instrument
- Luck
- Medicine Show (3)
- Banjo Proverbs
- Banjo Origins (2): The Fifth String
- Medicine Show (4): A Spell to Ward Off Banjos
- The Silent Banjo
- Sugar Baby
- Banjo Origins (3): Jesusland
- Medicine Show (5): Shackleton’s Banjo
- Where Bluegrass Comes From
- Becoming Banjo
- The Fretless Banjo
- Out of Tune
- Ohio man accused of killing wife with banjos
Well this is one that sticks in the mind like a burr! I love the sense of a kind of folk wisdom in it. It feels as though it was made a long time ago. Moreover, when I read it I hear your voice, which makes me smile a lot. And dance…
Glad you found it so memorable! I went to a multi-day bluegrass festival with my banjo-playing cousin and his family last weekend, so that’s the immediate background. The first two sentences I ascribe to the banjo player are in fact pretty close to what I overheard in a workshop for banjo players on Saturday. But I was influenced also by some video footage I shot yesterday morning of a beetle on a blade of grass, which I may still turn into a videopoem for this.
Pun as closure!
Why not? It’s the kind of line that wouldn’t be out of place in a bluegrass or country song.
The whole effect to me is one of grape stomping. To music. Delightful.
Thanks. I am attempting to upload a video (and will share it here this evening, thunderstorms permitting). But alas, I have no footage of grape stomping to put in it.
Okay — a video poem that works wonderfully. Thanks.
Hey, glad you liked! I know you’re kind of a skeptic about this videopoetry thing.