Thursday, March 7, 2013

Born to Lose

I sold my car today. My sweet little 1998 Nissan Sentra. And I've been listening to The Blue Room, the newest CD from Madeleine Peyroux. Hits the spot! I love her gorgeous slow, easy voice and choice of songs. On this one, I'm drawn to "Born to Lose" and "You Don't Know Me," and last night I wept to her rendition of "Gentle On My Mind." Not because of the car. Just because the song is sweet and sad and lovely.

I'm still reading The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. Also waiting on a patient stack: Where Good Swimmers Drown, by Susan Elbe, winner of the Concrete Wolf chapbook contest, and Survivors' Picnic, by Debra Bruce, both poetry books, both a little blue-sounding (and making it a Blue Monday on a Thor's Day in the blog). For instance, here's a very short poem by Debra Bruce:


Her Ex Sits Next To Her

It's far too soon for her to make a joke of it,
scuttle him away with a swish of wit,
This is a love seat, isn't it?

but too late to reach across the child-size space
between them, or look directly at his face.

Good stuff, that. I'll be able to read and review Survivors' Picnic for Escape Into Life, because Debra Bruce is one of our EIL poets, so more on that later!

In the meantime, everything is gentle on my mind.

4 comments:

Paulette said...

I have Madeline Peyroux's first album and I love her voice. You Don't Know What Love Is is one of my favorite songs. I first discovered it on Chuck Brown's duet with Eva Cassidy. I didn't know then that he was the "godfather of Gogo" and not known for singing the blues. It was one of the songs I learned when I was still taking voice lessons.

Kathleen said...

Paulette, I think I have all of her albums now! She makes cooking possible at all for me. I can't cook without music.

Hannah Stephenson said...

Gentle and blue and soothing. Though the poem you included is very sad...

Happy reading to you!

Kathleen said...

Thanks, Hannah. And the song "Born to Lose" is about losing a lover, too. Sigh...

But somehow singing the blues...helps.