A Musical Interlude: Just the Two of Us (Grover Washington, Jr.)

Quite a musical ensemble here: Grover Washington Jr. on saxophone, Bill Withers on vocals, Marcus Miller on bass, Steve Gadd on drums, and Richard Tee on the Fender Rhodes keyboard. 

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Monday Music: One (by Birdtalker)

Here is a recent discovery for me. An indie folk group from Nashville, Birdtalk seems to bring an eclectic mix to their original songs. Concerning the name of the band, according to an interview,  "Birdtalker is a playful homage of St. Francis of Assisi. At the time we were reading about St. Francis, and just reading about that approach to life was inspiring to a lot of the stuff we wrote early on (and still does now).  He is the patron saint in the Catholic tradition of poverty and nature, and the specific story we are quietly referencing is when he was walking in Italy with some of his monks and walked over to a flock of birds and starting thanking them for what they did, and was preaching the gospel to them.  The story taught about respecting and learning from the things that are natural around you, and just taking the time to recognize their importance.  The story was so whimsical to us, and we wanted to pay homage without the name being explicit and overly religious."

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Sufi Tears

Sufi Mosque on the Sinai Peninsula (European Press photo) 

"Militants Kill 305 at Sufi Mosque in Egypt’s Deadliest Terrorist Attack"

(Headline from The New York Times)

Sufi  Tears

They opened doors to a world

Where sunlight lifts the heart

And words are like

The sweetest garden nectar.

The Sufi’s song to the Beloved

Created a space

Where all can find peace.

Their poets

Brought wholeness

To a fragmented world.

They told the world

Of a divine realm,

Just behind the breath

Of every searching soul,

Where the Beloved offers companionship

Throughout the measure of our days.

Now zealot bombs have shattered

That sacred space,

Spilling blood

And taking lives

In a mindless cacophony

Of shrapnel and smoke.

Mothers wail

As bodies lay scattered.

Bitter grief

Seizes the chests of husbands and fathers

While the Beloved weeps nearby.

What world is this

That cannot endure beauty,

Whose sons must shatter every light?

  

Sadness descends upon us

As we grieve

For our Sufi kin.

We would almost

Despair for our own future.

Yet in our sorrow,

We reach out

To those Sufi souls we seek to comfort.

It is they who will continue to nurture

The song of the Beloved,

And it is they who will dress

The wounds of the world

Until our violence ceases.

                                                ~ CK

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