Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

My Songs

Where Have all The Flowers Gone, a song dealing with way wars destroy an entire generation, was popularized by folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary in their 1962 debut album.

***

Someone said that as long as we live, there is never enough singing. 

Alas, for me, the soundtrack of my life has seemed to come to an end. No tune appeals to me anymore.

I can't even sing in my mind one line of the songs that I used to treasure.

So, where have all the flowers gone? 

Young girls have picked them, every one.

Where have all the young girls gone? 

Gone for husbands, every one.

Where have all my songs gone? 

Gone.

Fini

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

My Songs

Thank Heaven For Little Girls is a 1957 song written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. It was sung by Maurice Chevalier in the 1958 film Gigi.

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Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. - Anonymous

It was a Mother’s Day of epic proportions.

I got a blue-and-tan striped shift dress and a Victoria magazine with a picture of an idyllic French countryside on the front cover.

And dangling cat's eye earrings from Pier One that sparkled when I laughed.

Best of all?

I had conned almost-four and five-year old daughters to sing at the Mother's Day tea in church. I thought my song selection was perfect.

Thank Heaven For Little Girls.

I had coached my innocent ones, teaching them gestures that went with each significant phrase. 

Those little eyes so helpless and appealing

When they were flashing

Send you crashing through the ceiling.

I remember listening, wide-eyed and stupid, as I accompanied them on the guitar.

I thought they looked like this.

They're older now.

For little girls get bigger every day

They grow up in the most delightful way.

But no matter how old they get, my heart will always be with them. 

Some days, when there aren't any songs in my heart, I quietly sing anyway. 

Thank heaven for my little girls. 

(To be continued)

Close To You

My Songs

Close To You is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The best-known version is that recorded by the Carpenters American duo in 1970.

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Music replays the past memories, awaken our forgotten worlds and make our minds travel. - Michael Johnson

Why do birds suddenly appear

Every time you are near?

The singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from the heart. 

My insides were turning over.

Just like me, they long to be

Close to you

It was the year of a brief but intense infatuation for a good-looking, John Lennon look-alike, basketball superstar.

I remember how I would try to look cute in front of him, but would end up looking stupid.

How saying the nickname I created for him that only my best friend and I knew brought a smile to my face, a twinkle to my eye, and a skipped beat to my heart.

And every time he walked by and smiled... 

Oh, when he smiled... I'd melt and stars would fall down from the sky (even if it were broad daylight). 

Crushes were so awful. 

In my heart, I was singing.

Close to you.

Wa, close to you.

(To be continued)

Imagine

My Songs

Imagine is a song by Beatles musician John Lennon from his 1971 album of the same name.

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The music of memory has its own pitch, which not everyone hears. - Anonymous

Freedom and unity.

In mid-college, naive about the world and plagued by concerned parents, I semi-divulged in activism that was in vogue at the time. I joined the band wagon of dreamers who imagined an idealistic scenario where everyone would live life in peace.

I tagged alongside the banner-carrying throng chanting, To the wrongs that need resistance, to the right that needs assistance, to the future in the distance, give yourselves.

We swayed to the tune of Lennon's Imagine, brandishing hope, love, and trust in a world where there is no heaven. 

No hell below us. Above us only sky.

I imagined all the people living for today.

Nothing to kill or die for. No religion, too.

Longing for a world that will be as one. 

(To be continued)

April Love

My Songs

April Love is a song by Pat Boone, also used in a 1957 movie with the same title, starring Pat Boone and Shirley Jones.

*** 

We love music for the buried hopes, the garnered memories, the tender feelings it can summon at a touch. - Letitia Landon

Music is the way our memories sing to us across time. 

Thus I'm reprising past years with some of My Songs, starting with this one, way back in high school.

Pat Boone's April Love.

April love is for the very young

Every star's a wishing star that shines for you.

Humming along while listening to this tune on the radio was really the first music I was ever connected to.

When pimples were living on my face but I didn't see some rent. 

When in my early teens, I started to grow up and noticed boys' looks, whereas before I had thought boys had as much personality as coat hangers.

It was that time before my heart knew to protect itself. When everything important was raw and exposed. 

That moment when I felt like flying or jumping because my crush just smiled at me.

When conversely, I got depressed because my sweetie didn't come to school.

It's funny how a melody can sound like a memory. 

Of sudden showers that could grow flowers for my bouquet.

Of a certain smile that made my heart skip. 

Of that time in my life when love was all of the seven wonders.

(To be continued)