Sand Pebbles
Below is the audio version of Sand Pebbles. For read-along lyrics get your copy of the book now.
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Music and poetry have always felt like sister and brother to me. The poems and song lyrics in Sand Pebbles honor that bond. Some pieces are sentimental, some abstract, some simple, some sad, and some just fun. My poetry is sometimes lighthearted, but more often it’s a walk through my life and the things I’ve done, observed, or imagined along the way.
You may wonder about all the tortoise illustrations. Our website Poetryyes.com has a tortoise home page. It’s a tortoise sticking its neck out with a lighted house on top of its shell (see it page 143). I picture Sand Pebbles being written inside that house.
I began writing poetry in 1968 while serving in the Vietnam War. That’s when I met David Nye, who encouraged me to write. I’ve been writing ever since. Like anyone, I have experienced much joy in my life but also have suffered great loss. I look for meaning in this mysterious ride called life. “Why are we here” is a question that has echoed in human minds ever since we began to wonder. I have no clue “why.” But I do know the odds of us being here at all are beyond comprehension—yet here we are. The best we can do is live it!
Love has saved me along the way—my wife, my children, my grandchildren, my friends. When we are together, it is sacred time. We laugh a lot, that genuine, healthy laugh that lights up the moment and the day. Love is the lens I try to see life through.
As I said, it hasn’t all been bundles of laughs. When I was eight years old, my father died, yet try as I may, I don’t have one single memory of my dad. He was there every day, played ball with us, took us to movies, fishing, grandma’s house, you name it, but I can’t remember him for the life of me. My mother and older brother Fred never fully recovered. Clearly, neither did I. To what depths do we get thrown when our hearts are broken?
I was severely injured in 1978 and use a wheelchair. My book Don’t Push Me is about living a good, happy life on wheels.
For me, poetry is a way inside. But we can only know one another by what we’re willing to share. My poems have clawed and scratched their way out, offering you a glimpse of what’s within. This from my poem “Confidant” is my invitation:
Come inside / let me tell you / what I don’t know.
The songs are mostly a partnership between David Nye and me. John Mindock collaborated with me when Dave took a break. I write the words, and they wrap the music around them. All the works in here can be heard on www.poetryyes.com.
There are five sections: Youth; Searching; Where Love Is; Song Lyrics; Loss and Found. The songs have much of each. Some poems I recite myself, but most are performed by Gene Ptak, who has a wonderful gift for weaving music and voice. Listen to Gene recite the poems – with music – on Poetry Yes. You will feel his passion!
Finally, Sand Pebbles is about life and living it. It is a peek inside. A window. It’s a search for meaning, perhaps a look inside that you can enjoy and relate to as a reader and fellow traveler down life’s slow, yet somehow far-too-fast road. I hope the words speak to you.
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