song

Wendy Kheiry

Behind the Song: Bottle of the Blues

I wrote this song thinking of the line from Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know that goes “You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness,” and how even so, we seek out love and connection with others.

“Like resignation to the end, always the end”

Gotye’s song is, of course, beautiful and sad, and poignant, about endings and final words to lovers beyond our reach.

As Rosalie once said of Bottle of the Blues, “This is a kind of mood.”

Perhaps the addiction is to a darker shade of sadness, one with brittle cracks, and jagged edges.

It’s about beginnings, and connection even in the midst of pain and suffering.

This is a kind of mood, and not everyone will understand.

For those who do, I’m sorry.

Lyrics here

Wendy Kheiry

Posted an Original Song: Clever Like This

This is part of my systematic effort to reduce performance anxiety, and share original music. I’ve played this song only for a handful of people prior to recording.

There are other new posts up on my YouTube Channel, some of which are mildly amusing, sporadically informative, randomly entertaining, and insightful as to why something that might take 15 minutes will digress into singing, extemporaneous playing, and exploring the nature of sound.

This video stays on track though (miraculously).

Wendy Kheiry

Sing Me

Hold that first note

Long and low

Walk down the scale in time

Those minor keys

Unlock me

Sing the cage door open

With harmonies I fly

In melody return

Lift up a voice that’s true

Sing me back together

Climb again the mountain

Sail upon the sea

Lose me in the forest

Rhymes and rhythm captured

Spirits freed enraptured

Loose me from this prison

Sing me pure and good

Sing me real and gritty

Sing me one more time

Sing me back to you

Wendy Kheiry

Uncertain and Unsure

There are flowers out her window

The birds, they come to play

The swingers and the bluejays

Come for a bite, but never stay

There’s something to remember

But the thoughts begin to slip away

There are anchors getting lighter

Which hold the world in place

There’s something to remember

Getting fewer every day

At first she doesn’t know me

Uncertain and confused

Then a spark begins to flicker

In her eyes

“You’re the girl who plays guitar”

We pluck the strings

I try to sing

Her face begins to shine

Stories that she tells

Of a long and busy life

And it’s fitting that there’s people

Who come to care for her

After everything she’s done

For those she loves

Each time I think she’s fallen

Into a deeper sleep

I stop playing for a moment

And she stirs

“More music?”

And she tells me not to sneak away

Play another song for me

My audience of one

She might forget the songs I’ve sung

And that’s all right with me

For just some moments she is shining

Like a flower in the sun

Every song is new

Every song is new

Wendy Kheiry

Eyes of a Lion

Across the savannah of time

Waving grasses

Isolated trees

So much sky

There are herds roaming

From watering hole

To watering hole

There is the pride that lounges

Rising to stalk when hungry

Sun rises and sets and rises again

Stars move through their patterns in the night

At dusk and dawn

The melody of sunlight

The rhythm of constellations

Eons in minutes

The story told of all that life is

In the eyes of a lion

In the eyes of the antelope

In the flight of birds

And the whisper of grass moved

To dance by the wind

Across the savannah of time

Populations rise and set and rise

Inexorable setting sun

Imperative rising dawn

We sing to mourn the fall of light

We sing to celebrate illumination

We sing life awake

We sing death to sleep

We sing because we cannot stop

We sing in every movement

This song of existence

In every breath

Sung

The eyes of a lion

Looking out across the savannah

No time eternal

Forever fleeting

lion
Photo by Ghida Basma on Pexels.com
Wendy Kheiry

Hearts and Stone

They hang like chimes

Those hearts dangling over earth and stone

To hear their song in the hushed morning mist

Singing tales of brokenness and healing

Is to wander wonderingly into a pinpoint light

Soft and warm against the cool, hard texture

Of stone

Is to remember being wrapped in your arms

In a way that hasn’t happened yet

In a way that may never happen

Except in the floral chimes

Suspended

Protected

Swaying beautifully

Lit from within

Let us soften love

And meet one day on the path

Through fog and forest

Let us soften love

Until the light of us

Becomes one

As the stone blossoms

And hearts softly sing

Wendy Kheiry

My Name is Mud

  • My name is Mud
  • That’s what she told me
  • She treated me like dirt
  • Something to trod upon
  • My life had value only to myself
  • I would have gladly traded it for love
  • For just a moment of love
  • I tried to trade my life for love
  • To take the bad end of a dirty bargain
  • It’s harder to die than I expected
  • More difficult to let go of that final breath
  • Something within me still longs to live
  • Something sings
  • Something loves
  • I have no need anymore
  • My life is full of simple pleasures
  • A well cooked meal
  • The slant of sunlight through the window
  • The sound of my loved ones across a digital field
  • And from the mud
  • A single lotus blooms
  • My name has flowered into beauty
  • My name is Beauty
  • And there is no mother to silence my song
pink water lily flower on water
Photo by Diego Madrigal on Pexels.com
Wendy Kheiry

Christmas Gift 12/18/2020

Some folks get comfort from tradition

Others thrive on bold sedition

I have a more unique condition

Finding comfort in this premonition

A starry night both crisp and clear

Under the shining moon above

After a day of sun filled skies

Hand in hand with you my love

Your heart is a gift to the world

You wrapped it in ribbons of curlicue rhthyms

Placed the whole package under my tree

On a sticker so small that it might have been missed

Written “I love you” in a minor blues riff

Some celebrate wildly with food and with drinks

Some people read quietly, and in solitude think

There are those who watch movies right on the brink

For me the best part of the season are links

To the heart of my world

To the song in my soul

To the one who lights up the darkening swirl

Of shadows which never quite leave

The losses of all I have grieved

As Christmas approaches with a potential for gifts

I look in the presence for the spirit which lifts

My eyes from the troubles I’m leaving behind

To a future of hope in my heart

And a joy in my mind

If ever there were a love such as this

I would step forward with courage to claim that first kiss

Some people look to tradition

Some people are strong on sedition

I have this unique condition

Taking comfort in this Holiday premonition

It may be next week, or it may be next year

We’ll be together at Christmas sharing good cheer

We’ll be together at Christmas sharing good cheer

Wendy Kheiry

Follow the Road Home – 12/1/2020

How did we get so far

We wonder watching how the moon slips by

How did we make it through it all

How could we be standing here upon a quiet shore

You speak of where you’ve been

The twists and turns and bends

Of bars, of friends, of dreams that came and went

How did we get here

How could it all work out

We wonder in the mornings over coffee with delight

I spoke of rhymes and trying times

Of joys found in wild meadows

We listen to the heartbeat of the song rising

Between us

The music is a road leading us home

How did we get here

Listen to the melodies

How could we have made it through

We heard the harmony

We wonder as the sun sets over lake as smooth as glass

The full moon is there reflecting

Each note bringing us fast

How did we follow the road home

We followed the drumming of our hearts

Listen

Listen

The music is the road home

Wendy Kheiry

Daily Poem 11/29/2020

The cathedral of you

Divine light flowing from your eyes

A warmth of spirit in the air you breathe

Strong supports uplifting

Multicolored hope shining brightly

I would sing within you

Of the trees and sky and winter’s grace

Of stones and roots and river bends

In harmonies of tempered notes

Written by swords long rusted by

Time’s eternal march

There in the forest standing alone

A shrine of love

Open the doors

To the infinite drumming

Of life’s pure dream

The contemplation of the sacred

Fire within

A song without end

A song without an end