Monday, August 15, 2022

Diamonds in 42 lines

If she get to know you

Then they really have you

Ah, to be so exciting

It's good to need you so


Comin' up from the park

Don't it seem so far away

The smells of cookin' in the hallways

And he'd hide in a house

But it can't sing and dance


Girl, if it lasts for an hour, that's all right


And the sun gonna rise in the sky

Not a trace of doubt in my mind

And I am lost and I can't


Don't have to say it


If you want me to


Blind as a child

Why, you've become a grown-up girl

Humbled and awed by everything I'd found


Stay close to me

You are the words, I am the tune


Lord of my need, need, need

The boat that I row won't get me there soon

It used to be so natural


Good times never seemed so good

Wish I loved only one

But until I can find me


To forget the day

The blues now and then

Walk with me this day


I'll stay with you my love

Two together, forty years down

And more to go




Note: There is a writing challenge I gave myself to compose this. 42 is the answer to all things per Douglas Adams and his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books.  Our wedding anniversary was on the horizon. Dolores has frequently talked of two key events the year we got married, one was our wedding day, the other was her going to the Neil Diamond concert and sitting in the 6th row. No, she doesn't say which is more important. That's okay. I have had more time with her. 


Coincidentally, the Neil Diamond musical "A Beautiful Noise" (https://abeautifulnoisethemusical.com/was playing in Boston this year (July 2022) so we went and enjoyed it.  The playbill listed the 29 songs in alphabetic order (rather than in the order of the musical appearance). 29 is a good number for those who play cribbage. I took time to research the lyrics of the 29 songs. Found the fourth verse, took the second line (see 42 is the answer) and used this listing to craft the poem above. 


The last three lines are added to help make this about our anniversary.


For Dolores, my love