A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Faded photographs of album covers flit across the television screen
As songs from my past are harmonized by those I once crooned along with.

There’s The Hollies, singing about my brother not being heavy
And I’m there, remembering Billy.

Moments ago it was The Marmalade, singing “Reflections of My Mind”
As I recalled how I used to think the chorus said “Take me back to my Momma.”

Remember Elton John’s one about diamonds?
Yeah, I thought he sang “Put me in the sky with God” as I’d twirl ’round and around in the yard.

America sang about needing someone like the flowers needed the rain
And I remembered one night playing Solitaire and murmuring “I need you” to my unrequited love.

When a few moments ago Elvis sang about his suspicious mind,
I remembered a deejay once saying how he loved that song because it allowed him to take an extra long bathroom break when another chorus faded in to rile up the lovers again.

Now Neil Diamond is singing “Play Me.”
I took that one to heart–but got played instead.

Let’s move on.

Oh great: more Elvis, singing about that rain in Kentucky.
How I used to yearn for someone to seek me out like that.

Ahh, there’s Carole King with songs from her Tapestry album
For some reason that one makes me think about life as a kid in California.

Each time I hear “The Sounds of Silence” I remember the melancholy.
No matter what is going on, I must stop what I am doing and pay due homage to that classic.

The nearly maniacal laughter in The Guess Who’s song makes me question my own madness.
Are you laughing at me now?

Gordon, if you could read my mind, could you make sense of this?
That was another favorite that takes me back to my life as a young one without a clue.

And now we’re to Nilsson and his heartbreaking ditty about not being able to live if living is without you.
That one makes me think about you. You know who you are.

All of these songs played since the start of this poem. Ironic, since they probably started off as poetry themselves. Songs worth a thousand words but narrowed down to a few couplings.

A few lines that encompass my life–or at least a large part of it. Music: a word picture that we all hear in different ways, conflicting lights, and yet bringing us all together and making us see.