These Colors Don’t Run

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With July 4th just around the corner, I thought some of you might appreciate a song that I wrote right after the 9/11 tragedy in New York.

That event had a tremendous impact on us all. We were affected as a nation of people.

To me, that’s what the flag represents – unity as a nation of “ALL” people. Yes, there are rips and tears in ‘old glory,’ but we should ‘continuously’ identify the holes and work together to repair them. United we stand, divided we fall.

In addition to the song, I have also included a copy of the sheet music. Feel free to share.

The Ridge Riders – Red, White & Blue… These Colors Don’t Run

Red, White & BlueDownload

A Sense Of Smell

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The padded mailer arrived today

It was from my brother – he’s a poetry man you know.

I suspected a birthday card, but not in a puffy-air-filled package.

This felt more like a book – perhaps his newest collection of poems

                Very Exciting!

Inside was a book, but not his

                 instead

A vintage 1967 Rod McKuen, ” Stanyon Street & Other Sorrows”

Before I cracked-open its memory-sense pages

I slowly raised the edge of the book to my nose.

                Long, deep, inhalations – cherishing the flood of olfactory flavors

                                That an old book offers.

Like a fine red-vine wine or a rare-woodland truffle, freshly pulled from damp earth

                Each old book smell is uniquely unique.

His poems are filled with the essence of 1960’s life: mixed love; street struggle; childhood memories; innocence; lost friends; and death.

Subtle notes of rebellious freedom, VW van, Mary Jane and petulia oil, all lifted off my personal memory pages while reading.

Some panned his work — but they do not have the courage to write poetry, nor

A Sense of Smell