Cruelly Judged.
A well known singer / songwriter is still being unfairly condemed by ‘fans’ because he hasn’t lived up their own expectations of him.
Such words are his
they weave our dreams,
drift through our hearts
like moon-dipped streams.
Amber notes of songbird lilt
cascade from poets’ pen,
draw us up, with him to fly
to cast within a zephyr’d eye.
Yet this is not enough to see
in greed a gilded cage to tie,
berate the giver of the gold
for he has failed to live their lie.
A brush is not the canvas bare
an artist not the paint,
a songbird may the heaven’s hold
but he’s the singer, not the saint.
© sweetwater 2021
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Hi Sue – this is so lilting and really sweet. Hope you don’t mind a few suggestions to gild the lily: moonlit rather than moon-dipped reads aloud better although I liked the surreal juxtaposition of somehow dipping a stream in the Moon. The second stanza strayed from the rhyme scheme and ‘poet’s pen’ needs an apostrophe. Excellent stuff. Mitch
Thank you Mitch, I decided on moon-dipped as I was thinking of the moon’s reflection rippling in the stream as it flows onward. I debated over the ‘poets pen’ as he is a song writer, not literally a poet, so I wrote ‘poets’ plural to mean every poet, as if he has captured the words of every poet. As for the rhyme the first and last verses read more quickly and the middle two are slower. If you think I should change poets to poet’s I am happy to do so, never really been sure of apostrophes. I don’t read… Read more »
Appreciate the nib thank you 🙂
I enjoyed this different view of singer/songwriter and how we lay our expectations unfairly on our heroes.
Thank you Pronto this last year has been terrible for him due to family issues and those who profess to be long time fans are tearing every part of his character to pieces. He is one of the greatest singer / songwriters we are lucky to have and at 71 still writing and touring. I do not understand why so many people demand he lives up to their own self made image of him, when he already gives us so much to love and enjoy. Sue 🙂
I have just noticed this poem has been nominated. Thank you so much.