The Elbow Project, a poetic libretto by Bruce W Niedt

 

The Elbow Project

Poems Inspired by the Rock Band Elbow

by

Bruce W. Niedt

 

 

 

 

 

1.     Another Sunrise

 

And if it's so, we'd only pass this way but once
What a perfect waste of time....

— "My Sad Captains"

 

I can imagine my ancestors in a pub

on the foggy north end of the heath

banging pewter cups on oaken tables

as the governor barked last orders

 

while in the harbor, moorings came loose and frayed

and some of the boats would drift into the river

trying to remember where they had been.

 

I want to bang my cup for another lager.

I want to float downstream, past castles and canals.

I want to miss the train but catch the next one.

I never want any of this to end.

 

I want the last sunrise to also be the first.

I want to toast myself when I wander off

and leave only my words to echo me.

 2.     October Sky

 

Build a rocket, boys!

—"Lippy Kids"

 

We were aimless too, once,

hormones rattling around

in an unfamiliar cage

 

settling like crows

on the jungle gym

in that Hitchcock film

 

and she would come down

a freshly painted angel

walking on walls

 

and we would fall

all over ourselves

crushing out cigarettes

 

but we stumbled into purpose

and became rocket boys

and became October sky.

 

3.     Out of This Place

 

Got a lot of spare time
Some of my youth and all of my senses on overdrive....

— "Any Day Now"

 

That summer I worked at the chemical plant,

the young fool that I was

sat on a barrel of sulfuric acid.

 

When they washed me off

my ass was red

and there were holes in my jeans

 

but I came back the next day,

not out of dedication, but for the money,

and the resolution to finish college

and get the hell out of town.

 

The day I finally left,

a drum line of my work buddies

marched me out

 

through the loading dock doors,

banging on those goddamned

chemical drums.

 

4.     How to Die Happy

 

...my sweet trampoline...

―"Fly Boy Blue/Lunette"

 

all of this bouncing, this back and this forth

and the layover boredom, I wait with a drink

and a smoke and whatever they have on the idiot box

 (in the old days they would let you smoke in the bar)

 

but now those two monkeys are climbing my back

the one is bile-green and the other soot-black

and I know if I shake them I'll save my own life

but the pangs are too much like a dull rusty knife

 

will you be my solace, my rising red moon

when I wake in the morning with a pain in the chest

my sweet trampoline, let me sleep on your breast,

let your mystery kill me, your scar and tattoo

 

 

5.     2 a.m.

 

I'm proud to be the one you hold when the shakes begin...

—"Powder Blue"

 

This diner could be a Hopper painting

but instead of coffee

we share a dish of soggy fries.

 

Tonight under neon lights we look

even more sallow and desperate than we are

but I want to tell you

that I'll stay even though I don't know

where I'm going

 

in this city where saxes sound off like sirens

and the rain could easily wash us away.

 

 

6.     Morning, Glory

 

Kiss me like a final meal....

— "One Day Like This"

 

a burst through curtains

when sunlight hits her blue eyes

two slices of sky

 

how did we get old

and what morning alchemy

keeps us feeling young

 

bones and muscles creak

but hearts drum like yesterday

another first kiss

 

one day like this would

see me right for life, but luck

blessed me with many

 

in dust and routine,

even dreary days, we find

uncurtained moments

 

7.     This Side of the Horizon

 

Throwing both her arms around the world....

―”Magnificent (She Says)"

 

You, little one, are "magnificent,"

to use that word with as many syllables

as you have had years on Earth.

 

I can't help but catch your joy

and forget everything else

on this beach, this sandy world

 

where the waves wash over your toes,

where a shell becomes a shovel

and a piece of sea glass, a precious gem.

 

My fears are still not far off,

just over the horizon, where sea monsters

or warships may lurk on any given day.

 

But for now, let's be builders and fashion

a magnificent princess castle for the ages,

or at least till the next high tide.

 

8.     Looking in the Rearview

      (a “word acrostic” poem)

 

Dear friends
You are angels and drunks
You are Magi

Old friends
You stuck a pin in the map I was in
And you are the stars I navigate home by

― "Dear Friends"

 

Dear departed, dear still there,

friends who have been part of the journey,

you all got me here today.

Are you sleeping, are you awake?

Angels and demons

and graybeards and ghosts,

drunks and teetotalers, scoundrels and saints,

you all are indispensable, you

are worth more than any gift of the

Magi, more than any billionaire's cache.

 

Old days sometimes fade like photographs, but

friends, you are the afterimage in my eyes,

you are the memories that make me smile,

stuck in the brain like

a favorite record, a butterfly on a

pin. I am still driving

in from the wilderness, dust on

the windshield, creases on the road

map, and I don't know exactly where

I will rest, but I do know I

was in the greatest company

in all the towns you found me in,

 

and you have my gratitude,

you clouds in the sunset, you who

are a two-lane highway through the plains,

the rest stop, the last gas, the

stars that knock me back at night when

I gaze overhead, the same ones I use to

navigate toward the last leg of this trip,

home by breakfast, home

by morning.

 

 

9.     Homecoming

 

The moon is out looking for trouble

and everyone's here....

― "Open Arms"

 

You woke this morning―you were not on fire.

You need no ladder to climb out the window.

 

            You leave a window open, bring a backpack.

            The conductor asks to see your ticket home.

 

Back home they've unfurled the colored banners,

They've strung and tested all the colored lights.

 

            When you arrive a little late, the lights are on,

            The moon is rising in three-quarter time,

 

They sing a song the moon would know by heart,

And hoist a brew to you, they spill some foam.

 

            The night careens along on foam and moonshine,

            you sing through open windows till they close.

 

You need no ladder to climb in the window―

You wake this morning and you're not on fire. 

 

10.  Man in a Tower

 

Send up a prayer in my name...

—"The Loneliness of the Tower Crane Driver"

 

They pay me handsomely

to haul heavy things toward heaven,

stories above the rest of you,

where I can't hear your stories below.

 

When the whistle blows, I climb down

to earth with my lunch pail, walking

myself toward home, amid the laughing

and cigarette smoke.

 

If you want to send up a prayer,

just relay it to me - I'll hoist it to the clouds.

Just remember I'm no demigod,

and I' m only the snap of a cable

 

or a buckled steel truss away from falling

farther than any of you to the ground.

 

11.  Tribute to Flight 370

 

A prayer to the takeoff and landing of everything... 

— "The Takeoff and Landing of Everything"

 

Here’s to the beat of oscillating wings,

feathers turned into the wind,

the downward flap, the thrust and soar.

 

Here’s to our weightlessness

as wheels lift off the tarmac, and engines

push into a corridor of sky.

 

Here’s to updrafts and tailwinds,

gliding over canyons and lakes

above the sharp-beaked predator’s eye.

 

Here’s to Neil Armstrong and Superman,

and here’s to the traffic helicopter,

the hummingbird’s blur at the nectar jar.

 

Here’s to coming down again,

tires chirping, talons clutching,

welcome rest, firm feel of home.

 

And here’s to those who fell in the sea—

let’s hope their souls have gone where

everyone lands where they want to be.

 

 

12.  Lighter Than Air

 

"He was weightless,

in my arms...."

— Weightless

 

red balloon escapes

defying gravity, up

above the tree line

 

while the balloon man below

clutches a handful of souls

 

All photos are courtesy of Unsplash.com. Photo credits:

      Title page: Ayush Sharma

1.     Johannes Plenio

2.     Lukasz Lada

3.     Boba Jovanovic

4.     Grace Madeline

5.     Thomas Charters

6.     Elle Hughes

7.     Engin Akyurt

8.     Inga Gezalian

9.     Unsplash in collaboration with Getty Images

10.  Bernd Dittrich

11.  Mark Stuckey

12.  Denisse Leon

 

All lyrics are indicated in italics, and are written by Guy Garvey and Elbow, © Warner Chappell Music.

'Another Sunrise' was previously published in Chantarelle's Notebook, June 2023.