GUITAR HERO ~

Bert Jansch

3 Nov, 1943-5 Oct, 2011

"He completely reinvented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today," former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr told the Telegraph (U.K.). "Without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s would have been very different. You hear him in Nick Drake, Pete Townshend, Donovan, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Neil Young. There are people playing guitar who don't even realize they've been influenced by him one step removed."

quote:
Rolling Stone

SECOND CHANCES ~

Dorianne Laux

What are the chances a raindrop

from last night's storm caught

in the upturned cup of an autumn leaf

will fall from this tree I pass under

and land on the tip of my lit cigarette,

snuffing it out? What are the chances

my niece will hit rock bottom before Christmas,

a drop we all long for, and quit heroin?

What are the chances of being hit

by a bus, a truck, a hell-bound train

or inheriting the gene for cancer,

addiction? What good are statistics

on a morning like this? What good

is my niece to anyone but herself?

What are the chances any of you

are reading this poem?

---------------------------Dear men,

whom I have not met,

when you meet her on the street

wearing the wounds that won't heal

and she offers you the only thing

she has left, what are the chances

you'll take pity on her fallen body?



Dorianne Laux
from The Book Of Men
(Norton 2011)