LYRICS, POETRY AND PROSE 180211

FEATURED POSTS

February 11, 2018

A place to share some words of beauty, inspiration, and fun. This week we have music by singer-songwriter Tish Hinojosa, who has been around a couple of decades, but whom I had never heard of because I was working too damn hard. I actually met Ms. Hinojosa last week up in Joshua Tree where she was doing a concert at the Beatnik Lounge. She is a middle-aged lady now with grown children, but she retains her same lovely voice and artistic vision. You can check her out and buy some of her CDs at her website at http://www.mundotish.com/ Click on the name of the piece to get a video.

‘Cause there’s something in the rain
But there’s more here in our hands
‘Buelita’s right about the sins of man
Who’s profits rape the land

And the rains are pouring down
From the growers to the towns
And until we break the killing chains
There’s something in the rain

– Something in the Rain Singer and Writer Tish Hinojosa

It’s the way of life in the real West
‘Neath the Prairie moon that’s Heaven blessed
And a tall boot shuffle on a wooden floor
It’s a clean white shirt on a Saturday night
And a long cold beer that’s pure delight
And if you heard me say it, there’s a whole lot more

– In the Real West Singer and Writer: Tish Hinojosa

One more year rolls down the Rio Grande
Our forefathers crossed the muddy line
Pilgrims passing leaving tracks in time
One more takes a stand by the water by the land

Shifting like the sand by the Rio Grande
An unbroken chain snow and tears and rain
Cutting through my soul and to my veins
Then the water’s rise paint the Rocky Mountain skies

– By the Rio Grande Singer and Writer: Tish Hinojosa

(English translation)

Tell me that you love me

Like that night
With those kisses at that certain place
Paint me mountain and desert
Starry skies on the horizon

Tell me that night; Tell me with love

– Aquella Noche Singer and Writer: Tish Hinojosa

News

April 17, 2024

Minor Character

Sometimes I feel like a minor character in one of those really long James Michener historic novels. I’m one of the guys they check in on a couple of times during the course of the book and one more time when he finally kicks the bucket. In truth, that suits me just fine. I don’t want to be one of the major players – those guys who lie, cheat, sleep around, make a lot of money, kill a lot of people, and then then suffer a tragic death on Christmas Eve. I just want to be me – plugging along, having some fun, loving the same woman for years, and then quietly passing away.

March 25, 2024

Cereal Killer

I have almost given up on cereal. As a younger man, I loved a sugary treat. As an old man, who has to watch his diet, I find myself checking labels on everything. Sugar is the enemy. For instance, Cap’n Crunch – a former favorite of my wife – contains: Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Palm and/or Coconut Oil, Salt, Reduced Iron, Yellow 5, Niacinamide, Yellow 6, BHT, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Pridoxined Hydrochloride, Rioflavin, and Folic Acid. My choice: plain old Shredded Wheat. Ingredients: wheat and BHT (a harmless preservative). Not a taste treat, but at least I’ll live to tell about it

Highway Memorials

Driving across country nowadays, we notice a growing number of roadside displays – flowers, crosses, and ribbons – marking the sites where people apparently died in traffic accidents. I do understand mourning the passing of somebody you love, but I’m not sure I see the point of putting a display at the place along the road where they died. Even sadder is the fact that flowers wilt and highway trash piles up around the displays, making them just another sad reminder of life cut short.

December 5, 2023

Love Motives

I often tell my wife I love and adore her, mainly because I do and also because women like to hear the man in their life actually say the words. But during one conversation I had to confess that some times when I say it – especially when she is irked and giving me the deadly silent treatment – I am also reminding myself of that fact so I don’t start yelling and slamming doors. Is that so wrong?

Being Mortal

I am officially an old man. Sometimes I forget, then I look in the mirror and there it is. The truth is that life has its limits, and that is how it should be. There are new generations coming up, ready to step up and take our place. They are welcome to it. If you have reached old age, you have made some blunders in you life. If you think otherwise, then you are indeed a fool. You can warn the new generations about the mistakes you made, but they are oblivious. This too is as it should be. It’s their world, and it’s on them to screw it up for the generations to follow, just as we did for them.

Good Deeds

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It’s mostly – but not always – true. The problem with good deeds is that most people who do them expect to be appreciated. In actuality, good-deed recipients are more often resentful about it, rather than grateful. Nobody likes being the person who has to rely on the good will of others. So do good deeds for your own sake – because it makes you feel better, not because you want to be feel appreciated.

Recreational Bitching

Did you ever notice that some people – maybe more people than not – like to complain about everything? In the summertime, it’s too hot. In the wintertime it’s too cold. Health care is too expensive. Young people are too rude. Old people move too slowly. There ought to be a law against anything and everything that might make one unhappy. It’s recreational bitching, and we all do it to greater or lesser extent. Maybe once in a while, it might make sense to listen to how we talk and how we think. Most of us are just doing the best that we can.