On erica rucker: not me…but you
Hot damn! Im a clueless cunt, too! Wanda L. Trigg
Ms. Ruckers article … is the best written by a human being for human rights ever. Ms. Rucker is a true American hero. Yusuf Bilal
on uncovered
Yeah, lets pay attention to every word that comes out of [Donald] Trumps mouth, while ignoring everything Hillary [Clinton] has said or done …
Paul Blickenderfer
#ImWithHer Grace Kaelin
on 12 ways gov. Mike Pence did not make Indiana great again
Only 12? Bella Wyllie
LEO-VERSE
The Nobel Prize in Literature Edition
Music Saved My Life and Bob Dylan Saved My Soul
The Impossible Dream
By Ron Whitehead
“Just as I am without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me”
We were a gospel quartet Brad Steve Stan and me
Singing our hearts out “The Impossible Dream”
Sunday morning service at the Centertown Baptist Church
After the preaching and “Just As I Am”
Page came up and smiling said “boys that was sure good”
And she added laughing real loud “and Ronnie you sure are
animated” And then Saundra Karl chimed in with “yes that was fine
but Ronnie you were flat” and oh my oh my oh my
I went home swearing I’d never sing again
And I didn’t until I got in the car
Turned on the radio and heard Bob Dylan
Singing Like A Rolling Stone “how does it feel
to be on your own a complete unknown” and
I caught myself breaking my promise
Singing
So what if I was flat as a pancake
Music had saved my life more than once
And every time I’d listened non-stop to
Bob Dylan well ever since I was 12 years old
Every time I heard him sing I felt deep down inside
He was saving my soul helping me want to keep on
Keeping on no matter what the hell was going on
And I knew then as I knew before and after that
I’d never quit listening to Bob Dylan who I regard
To this day as The Best of them all better than Homer
Better than Shakespeare his words his songs helped
Me know I’d never abandon song I’d never quit
Listening to the Gift of God sweet music and even
If I couldn’t in public at least in private I’d keep on
Singing and well us boys Brad Steve Stan and me
Well I believe all our lives and souls were saved
More than once by music by Bob Dylan and
Yes we listened to every kind of music we heard
It all church music and funeral dirges as Mama and
Her sister Jo Carolyn sang far back as I remember
I see people climbing on coffins including Pappy
Trying to keep Mammy from leaving him behind
Her lying there in the pine yes we heard gospel
And blues and we heard country mixed with
Traditional oldtime folk mountain Appalachian
Going back to Ireland and Scotland and Wales
And we listened to Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams
And Bill Monroe and Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn
And Woody Guthrie and Odetta and Jean Ritchie
And Pete Seeger and The Everly Brothers and
Merle Travis and Robert Johnson and Mose Rager
And Grandaddy and The Montgomery Brothers and
Brother Matthew’s Gospel Quartet with my 3rd grade
Teacher Mrs. Duncan banging on that piano like I’d never
Heard in no Baptist Church and I got excited Oh Lord
Can music make you feel this good? brought tears to
My boy eyes made goosebumps run all up and down
My back and all over my body made my flat topped hair
Stand up straight and tall without no butch wax on it
And then came Elvis and Johnny and Jerry Lee and
Daddy said turn it off but he was glued too
And didn’t couldn’t move eyes staring in disbelief but
Excited what in the world is this and everybody felt
That way more excited than ashamed wanting to be
Part of that energy that we all know must be a gift
From some greater source and for my generation
For me Bob Dylan yes The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones but Bob Dylan from the first note I heard him
Perform late one night I was 12 upstairs in the attic
Where my brother Brad and I slept holes in the walls
Of our old Kentucky farmhouse wind whispering through cedar
And pine through those holes I saw plenty of ghosts
There but I also every night listened to 79WLS on AM
Radio outta Chicago and the sound went in and out
Depending on the weather and Daddy some nights he
Home from working double shifts at the coal mines
Yelled up the stairs as the radio had gotten real loud
And Bob was singing “how does it feel” and being a
Poet who loves music as much as poetry well Bob’s
Words and I knew them all by heart Bob’s words
Saved my soul growing up in the pioneer lands of
Kentucky where Bluegrass was birthed distant cousins
Of The Everly Brothers I grew up with music and I
Mean every kind of music but the poemed music that
Has sustained me all these years that has always and
Continues to save my soul to save me from death in
Life is The Master Bob Dylan’s music which always
Directed me towards God as if music came from God
And every time I turned to Bob Dylan’s music life
Became bearable again I thought about Resurrection
Again I thought about redemption again
Music saved my life and Bob Dylan saved my soul
“And that thou bid’st me come to thee
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!”
Whitehead will be guest Poetry Editor for this years Literary LEO.
This article appears in October 19, 2016.