A Wedding Poem

Husband and wife on this blessed day

begin their life together, finding their way

We know it is really God’s facility

that they were blessed with mental agility.

Their love is waxing, not waning,

and with so many years still remaining

they have youth’s possibility

yet unshakeable stability.

Whether reaping or sowing,

discarding or sowing,

they are strengthening and growing

seeking, and yet, already knowing.

From one who should have learned by now:

Start out together and make a new vow.

Think upon these words that mostly rhyme.

They can save you some grief and a lot of time.

Cherish divinity.

Seek serenity.

Value stability.

In your youth: embrace viability.

and as you age: embrace senility.

The Lord is obviously part of your lives..

so show us how to be good husbands and wives

My thoughts on The Eagles and their lyrics

I have enjoyed listening carefully to the lyrics of the Eagles and I can see why there is a hobby people have of determining the meaning. Hotel California is about the feeling California gives people and the way it pervades the memory even after you are “back home”. The Eagles were from the midwest and the lure of California to them, and to me, is the beauty and timelessness of the geography. It is truly a unique physical paradise but it is corrupted due to the culture it has attracted. The pioneers came for gold. The movie industry came for the climate and the empire building. The music industry thrives there with talent of the sometime self destructive artists and their various audiences. The Eagles were referring to the culture, not a physical Hotel California. On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of calitas (marijuana smoke) rising up through the air (mystically). Up ahead in the distance (towards the west) I saw a shimmering light. (The promise of the fun, scary, exciting things in the city) So as they contemplated this “ I had to stop for the night” They thought about the juxtaposition of good and bad “heaven and hell”. The imagery of the hotel, corridors, the creepy captain and the nightman “you can check out anytime you like..but you can never leave”. Welcome to this place, and then welcome to the culture of deception, manipulation, betrayal. ”Anytime of year you can find it here’.

The words they choose are so literate:

•Bring your alibis.

•You can see the stars and still not see the light.

•They will never forget you...till somebody new comes along.

•Every form of refuge has its price

•Did she get tired or did she just get lazy?

•You call someplace paradise, you can kiss it goodbye

•Looking for a place to run..or a place to hide

•Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

•So you live from day to day, and you dream about tomorrow,

•And the hours go by like minutes and the shadows come to stay

....So you take a little something to make them go away

•I don't know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free

•We thought we could change this world

with words like "love" and “freedom“

•So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains

and we never even know we have the key

Gasparilla 2011