Jerry Chasen's Blog

We’ve watched another year go past.
One filled for me, more than the rest
with change. Life. Death. Change coming fast
upon the heels of change, a test
of just how much can you take now–
Like here try this one on for size,
next handle that, then see just how
the hell you’ll get through this surprise.

And so you bend into the wind
until you fear you’ll surely break.
Until the only thought your mind
will hold is how much can I take?
The only place you want to go
is somewhere simpler back in time.
The only thing you want to know
is where’s the reason, where’s the rhyme.

Then something shifts; at least so far,
it seems from out of nowhere comes
a call, a sky, a breath, a star,
and once again the engine
hums the song of life. Oh yes, that tune
by now I feel I know it well;
I hear it in a crescent moon,
I see it in a puppy’s smell.

Like water to a thirsty man
I drink the sound. The strength that song
delivers tells me that I can
go on—life’s more than short or long.
And no, I haven’t figured out
a way to interrupt the fear
that change presents, what it’s about,
or any sure fire means to hear
that song. But that it plays through all
that comes and goes, I’m more than sure;
and trust I’ll hear its siren call
again, permits me to endure

the trying times. And so my prayer
this holiday is that whatever
comes your way, what you barely bear,
what you hate or fear, you never
lose faith that song, that music plays,
and that you’ll hear its sweet refrain
once more. The strength that song conveys—
it will sustain you once again.

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