Mar 2019
THOUGH YOUR HEART IS ACHING
My father is mending my sole.
Slaps it up on the last and
with tacks between lips
begins humming Chaplin's
theme from LIMELIGHT.
Even the sunlight
pauses to listen.
The rhythm of the tacks
his only accompaniment
as he de de das and
the music enters my soul.
Now in his dying
far from that sunny time
I hum it back to him
in my mind.
"De de de de da!"
I tell him
as the music soars
and we are enclosed
once again in that one
perfect moment
where not even Death
can enter.
My father is mending my sole.
Slaps it up on the last and
with tacks between lips
begins humming Chaplin's
theme from LIMELIGHT.
Even the sunlight
pauses to listen.
The rhythm of the tacks
his only accompaniment
as he de de das and
the music enters my soul.
Now in his dying
far from that sunny time
I hum it back to him
in my mind.
"De de de de da!"
I tell him
as the music soars
and we are enclosed
once again in that one
perfect moment
where not even Death
can enter.
***
When I was visiting my friend Gerry Sweeney during my Da's illness he would always be singing or humming or whistling either ;Chaplin's SMILE or THIS IS MY SONG.... He wasn't to know that my Da would always sing these )to me as a small boy. It was his philosophy for living!
Gerry has a way of reaching into my unconsciousness and coming up with little bits of my past.
So it set me to remembering my Da mending my shoe to Chaplin's "Terry's Theme" from his 1952 movie LIMELIGHT which later would acquire words an become ETERNALLY.
I prefer it as an instrumental and my favourite version is always this unseen/unheard version( visible only to me ) of my Da with a mouthful of tacks putting down this layer of love for Charlie and his music
In the hospital I had to indeed smile though my heart was aching and I sang the LIMELIGHT theme back to him one last time.
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love Marcus Aurelius
When I was visiting my friend Gerry Sweeney during my Da's illness he would always be singing or humming or whistling either ;Chaplin's SMILE or THIS IS MY SONG.... He wasn't to know that my Da would always sing these )to me as a small boy. It was his philosophy for living!
Gerry has a way of reaching into my unconsciousness and coming up with little bits of my past.
So it set me to remembering my Da mending my shoe to Chaplin's "Terry's Theme" from his 1952 movie LIMELIGHT which later would acquire words an become ETERNALLY.
I prefer it as an instrumental and my favourite version is always this unseen/unheard version( visible only to me ) of my Da with a mouthful of tacks putting down this layer of love for Charlie and his music
In the hospital I had to indeed smile though my heart was aching and I sang the LIMELIGHT theme back to him one last time.
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love Marcus Aurelius
