When You’re Down in Memphis

Let’s go down to Memphis

Listen to some old time blues

That might be news to me

Feel the joy in the melancholy

As wailing guitars push out notes

Like potbellied tears

And tiny little diamonds

We’ll dance by the stage

With that sweet ol’ man with the cap

How do you say no

To a sweet ol’ man with a cap?

We will marvel

At the Beale Street Blues Boy

His portrait on the wall

The reason for it all

We’ll try those deep fried pickles

Savor the sweet tang of the ribs

Lip smackin’, hip packin’

As we sway to the rhythm

Of the house band

Let’s take a walk

Beside the muddy Mississippi

The sound of the sax

Rising softly at our backs

We’ll ride the horse drawn carraige

Lit up like Christmas

Because that is what you do

When you’re down in Memphis

~

Rest in Peace, Mr. B.B. King

(September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015)

~

Dedicated to my friend, Ann and a road trip I will never forget.

Alternate Route

I take the scenic route, switchbacks, potholes
Where distance fails me, a few miles short of escape
Yellow lines divide freedom from catastrophes
Blue-grey blankets lie heavy in sapphire skies
Flaxen fields brush stroke my thoughts in gold
As roadside hawks circle to catch winds of grace
I succumb to the art of enlightenment
The blur of mile markers, dilemmas lost in transit

~

 

 http://dversepoets.com/2015/04/21/poetics-of-the-road/

We are writing octets (eight line poems) for dVerse. Some of us incorporated the theme of the road or travel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musings of a Traveller

Does this blur have a beat?

My journey, my song

Is unwritten

Notes on pages

Lines on roads

Tarmac, tat-a-tat

Feeling kind of sick of that

Let me hear the wind

Drumming on mesas

Harmonizing layers

Of earth and sky

Tumbleweeds will try

To rock and roll my soul

And clouds can dance, you know

Written for dVerse Poet’s Pub

This week for dVerse Poetics, our prompt was the “rhythm of the road”.