Jorma Kaukonen is 85

he’s picking acoustic with a friend

a Dylan song

I sing along

and it’s a brief beautiful thing

something good on the monotonous scroll

something melancholy too

I find inspiration in melancholy chill

the blue light shines next to Buddha

I plugged it in for mystery glow

my old guitar’s dusty from waiting

but tonight I find the strum

It was Jorma in the video

old man picking

never looking up from his hands

they know their way

I got the D Em G A sad song melody

skip syllable lyrics

something about a river

and morning light

tuned to the key of cliché

I like the sound of water’s flow

my unused voice quiet searching

there’s meaning in the role

of the witness I suppose

Even if I never finish it

the ten minutes of slow strumming

repetition shimmers in my bones

my fingers know the way when I forget

lose the path

they climb they fumble slip they go

Maybe it’s these loose moments

brief suspensions of expectation

redefined imperfection

embracing that

buzz clang chaotic shout

quandom review

reverie fossil

death misery and shame

sustains us through this

travelling spinning flummery

this stumble dance we do

stop time without falling

improvised rhyme

carry on to see where it leads

tomorrow if I’m lucky

if the clouds don’t obscure the moon

and hummingbirds return to shelter

unafraid

I’ll remember how this fledgling

flicker of something whole

made me feel

hold it awhile in sway

one more dance around the sun~