| open windows salt-breeze
chair laden ocean bound we go.
hot sand crowded beach
castle-dodging vacancy we seek.
leather shoes sunscreen
red and white our spot we mark.
ocean tested books cracked
seagulls guard relax
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| I was listening to Springsteen's the Rising and was struck by the importance of context. The album was written in 2002, just after September 11th. It was just playing in the background, and I happened to have the lyrics. I hadn't thought about the album much, and hadn't understood it much. But thinking about the last few songs on the album, as a response to the tragedy and pain of September 11th makes sense.
"Your Missing" is a painfully honest look at when someone is ripped out of a home. The song just looks at life without someone that should be there. The song doesn't sugar coat the situation either. "Children are asking if its all right/Will you be in our arms tonight?" But the song doesn't leave with a nice, clappy happy ending. "God's drifting in heaven. Devils in the mailbox/ I got dust on my shoes, nothing but tear drops"
The next song attempt to reconcile the situation a bit more. "The Rising" uses the imagery of a mountain climber rising up to get to god, to get some kind of closure.
"I see you Mary in the garden/ In the garden of a thousand sighs/ There's holy pictures of our children/ Dancin' in a sky filled with light/ May I feel your arms around me/May I feel your blood mix with mine/ A dream of life comes to me/ Like a catfish dancin' on the end of the line" I think that for Springsteen write about seeing Mary in the garden implies a lot of intimacy because of his previous song "Secret Garden" he talks about the secret places in our selfs that no matter how intimately we get to know someone are still secret. I think its significant that a garden is where he meets Mary. Springsteen continues to talk about all the emotion that makes up life, but still doesn't resolve the pain and bitterness of loss.
The next song, "Paradise", continues to explore the theme of reoccurring grief and sorrow. A person can come to terms with the loss of another person, but then three day or eight months later grief just jumps up a is in your face. "
I search for the peace in your eyes/ But they're as empty as paradise/ They're as empty as paradise// I break above the waves/ I feel the sun upon my face" But there is a small element of hope.
Finally in the last song, "My City of Ruin" there is a feeling that though, the church doesn't have a congregation, we can make it through. "Now's there's tears on the pillow/ Darlin' where we slept/ And you took my heart when you left/ Without your sweet kiss/ My soul is lost, my friend/ Tell me how do I begin again?/ My city's in ruins/ My city's in ruins" It is a bitter loss that has been suffered, but:
I pray for the faith, Lord
We pray for your love, Lord
We pray for the lost, Lord
We pray for this world, Lord
We pray for the strength, Lord
We pray for the strength, Lord
Now I feel like I've ripped poetry into prose so go listen to the album. I like it when I feel like I understand art, and this is a case where understanding the context, and having lived through September 11th, this album makes much more sense, and I appreciate it more. I'm probably the last person in the world to realize this about this album in particular, and art in general, but I enjoyed listening to the album and writing about it.
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| Today was just one of those day were I did nothing but bumble around the internet and set up a blog. It's been a beautiful week, but today is gray, windy and overcast.
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