kagablog

April 7, 2008

Bluesology

Filed under: poetry, mphutlane wa bofelo — ABRAXAS @ 3:55 pm

he whistles & hums his burdens he welcomes the anguish

into haunting tunes of the people into his heart

surrenders his heart to all ears weaves their murmurs and groans

his grief sinks in people’s minds into exhilarating sounds

a tapestry of the blues buried

within everybody’ chests

scribes roll reams of paper

write PhD dissertations

on psycho-metaphysical

dimensions and philosophical

underpinnings of his tunes

the ethnographer receives cum laude marks

to graduate as an expert

in the phonetics and intricacities

of the music of African language

& a doctor in what-what

on the meaning and origins

of Blues

the psychiatry of the Spirituals

& the borderline between Jazz & Soul

& the whys and whatevers of Rhythm and Poetry

his palms caressing

an empty paraffin vessel

he breathes his spirit

in a forsaken hosepipe

empties his lungs

in a lonely bamboo cane

feeds a deserted beer-bottle

with his soul & passerby’s

with his song-tales- their stories

the musicologist drowns himself

in the acoustics and poetics

of his own voice & swims in the (sem)antics

in an effort to put a tag

on the rhythms and blues

in the jazzy dance of soulful

lips wailing the pounding rap

of rain drops on rooftops of a mud-hut

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