Mister Magic

 

Mister Magic

What age were you
When a song first
Impacted you?
Hit you straight in the heart
In your soul
Sixteen is when it happended to me.
1975
I was in Berkeley, California
Visiting my cousins for Christmas
My cousin put the platter on
On a good stereo too
The cover intrigued me
First track to play?
Track 3
"Mister Magic"
The opening key groove caught my attention
As if to say "listen up"
Then some poppin' electric guitar
To spice it up
Then at 32 seconds in
Grover's sax entered
Bam
I was hooked
Never heard the sax played in such a cool manner
A musician I was not
But I knew what was magic'And this was
Mister Magic
Had a spell on me
Before that time jazz to me
Was my parents Pete Fountain vinyl
Not now
Grover Washington Jr and his R&B-ish jazz
Infused with a unique collection of flowing beats and grooves
That I still listen to today.
Mister Magic
Impacted me forever

Where is Papa Bear?

 Where is Papa Bear?

Imagination
The world I lived in as a kid
Goldie Locks and the three bears
One of my favorite stories
I always wondered what it would be like
To run into Papa Bear?
Momma and Baby Bear I could handle
Papa Bear got me a bit nervous
In an imaginative way

I'm always on the look out for Gnomes
And Lephreicans
Fairies not so much
Nor Dragons
Peter Rabbit, most definitely

So when I turned into a big kid
Sixty-Five years big
I have a forest of my own
An acre-wood
A meadow too

And there is evidence that these imaginary characters live there

My grandkids are on the look out for them
And so starts there imagination wheels
Spinning away
In wonderment
In curiosity
And when just trompsing through the forest
Looking for sticks or rocks
They ask ...
"Hey Poppie ...
... Where is Papa Bear? I see his chair!"

Wonders of the Beach

Wonders of the Beach

How long is a beach?
I say, until the wonders stop
But reality tells me
That the wonder will never stop
Wonders of a beach
My age will change
On that beach
And then my wonders will change
My mom taught be that
She always "wonderted" at a beach
I never asked her why
Her actions told me
Her slow walk
Head pointed doqwn
Looking fopr that next sand dollar
Next starfish
Next agate
If I could ask her one question
It would be
How long is a beach?
I imagine her answer would be
Not long enough
She wondered at the beach
And so I wonder at the beach
Ahhhh the wonders

Wonders Of My Forest

 

Wonders Of My Forest

Morning time
Another day
To find the wonders of the world
Lets start in my forest

And so my four year old granddaughter begins her day
Her biggest choice of the day
Explore the back meadow?
Two acres of tall grass with moles, shrews and rabbits hiding
To be found
Or explore "my" forest
Always on the look out for that elusive coyote
Or a bear
There is a bear cave so she knows that bear is around

How life should be
"Cuddle Bear" in tow
Boots on
"Follow me" she says
And I follow
Into her forest
Time stops
As she inspects the tiniest of mushroom
Or checks on her owl friends
Porcelain ones I put out on a tree branch
Cuz every forest needs owls, right?

And I follow
As she discovers new wonders this morning
The afternoon she wants to head out to the back meadow
To meet Mr Toad and Mr Rabbit and Mr Lion
That is after lunch though

And I follow