Music

Sorry to be so late this evening. I was visiting a friend and we got talking about "Music"...how we were involved in hearing music through our respective fathers. My father didn't play an instrument but he listened to music - the radio played whenever he was awake ( he worked night shift ). He had a vast collection of records, that he sent for and catalogued. We had a radiogram, then a record player, then Hi Fi, then stereophonic, then quadraphonic sound ! Music was  piped throughout the house. He also indulged in tapes, then CD's. I was involved in music too. I had singing lessons,sang in the school choir,had parts in school operettas, sang an unaccompanied solo in St Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen. I played the guitar and with friends at school formed a folk group. I was avidly into folk music and had the opportunity to attend many evenings at the Music Hall. Hostelling weekends and hiking trips were punctuated with singing the old songs round the campfire and on the coach. For ice-skating I required music for programmes and was always on the lookout for suitable pieces.
    So what kept me so late ? Well I was recalling the first LP record I bought with my first pay ! I could remember what the 'sleeve' looked like and I could remember some of the songs. Well we found some of the tunes on the internet and I was singing along...occasionally stumbling over long remembered words. We talked of our Dads and their love of music, and of course the radio and records were the entertainment of their era..not TV, nor computers.Lives moulded by music.
    Today's poem was written after visiting a newly built shopping mall in Phoenix.

Song of the American Robin

Does anyone care?

They've planted a mall

Where once I could call

Across the prairie grass,

Now all that's past

Does anyone care?

That I now fly over concrete fields,

Where once were lush , green, open fields

Where I could lazily feed.

What is this Man's greed ?

Does anyone care?

That cars pollute the air I breath,

Where once I truly did believe

That I was free to fly,

Now all that's gone by.

Does anyone care?

That the nesting sites I sought

Are lands that Man has bought.

Gone too are the ancient roosting trees,

Vanished for \Mankind to please.

Does anyone care?