Rust (Lynn Miles)

I just finished watching The Grammy Awards, most of it fairly mediocre but with a few bright spots - loved the Tina Turner/Beyonce duet on Proud Mary, Vince Gill's acceptance speech (a line of which is quoted below) and Herbie Hancock winning Album of the Year... for River: The Joni Letters (f*ck, yes!).

[updated 2/11/08: Herbie Hancock stunned onlookers with a surprise win for album of the year with the Joni Mitchell tribute, "River: The Joni Letters"... The pre-telecast show delivered three trophies to Canadians, including one to the legendary Mitchell for best pop instrumental performance for her song, "One Week Last Summer"... Mitchell received additional kudos from friend Hancock, who also took best contemporary jazz album" - full story here... ]

SONG: Rust by Lynn Miles

BOOK: You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life by Mary D. Esselman, Elizabeth Ash Velez (editors)

POEM: Nothing by Linda Hogan

Nothing sings in our bodies
like breath in a flute.
It dwells in the drum.
I hear it now
that slow beat
like when a voice said to the dark,
let there be light,
let there be ocean
and blue fish
born of nothing
and they were there.
I turn back to bed.
The man there is breathing.
I touch him
with hands already owned by another world
Look, they are desert,
they are rust. They have washed the dead.
They have washed the just born.
They are open.
They offer nothing.
Take it.
Take nothing from me.
There is still a little life
left inside this body,
a little wildness here
and mercy
and it is the emptiness
we love, touch, enter in one another
and try to fill.

QUOTE: "Music is the real place where democracy lives. Every note is equal." ~ Vince Gill, 2008 Grammy Awards