Hi everyone, and hooray for my first ever audio collaboration with my heartbreakingly brilliant songwriter of a wife.
For the most part, I’m going to just let this thing speak for itself, but I did have a couple quick things to share first.
This first episode of The Daybird Sessions is here and free for everyone! However, future episodes will be exclusively released to my members here on Substack. If you’d like to subscribe, you can do that here. I tried to make the pricing super accessible, but if this is something you really would like to be a part of and payment is an obstacle, please send me an email and we’ll work something out :) I need to make a living, but I don’t want to exclude anyone who wants to be here, so let’s make sure we keep those doors open.
If you’re interested in an art copy of the poem I share today, you can get that here.
Now, without further ado… The Daybird Sessions, episode one.
Transcript
ALEX BLUE:
Hello, and welcome to the first episode of The Daybird Sessions. I’m Alex Blue, and I’m a singer-songwriter.
T.R.H. BLUE:
And I’m t.r.h. blue, and I am a poet, and also her wife.
AB:
Yes. And…
TB:
We tried to record this several times with our baby in our arms, and he wouldn’t let us get a word in edgewise, so we waited ‘til his nap to get back into this.
AB:
We really just wanted to make something, and this is just an invitation to take some intentional time to really listen and take in what art can potentially offer.
TB:
It’s also, in some ways, like, what you can offer art, when you bring your whole humanity to it, when you bring your attention to it. And to paraphrase Jane Hirshfield, poetry finds its completion with the reader; a lot of the meaning is hidden in the space outside the words.
AB:
Each episode is going to be a poem and a song, side-by-side. They are meant to complement each other. They’re not meant to say the same thing all the time. But, they’re meant to, when you hear one, you might hear the other one differently. Or in a new way that is just meaningful to you.
TB:
And the purpose in all of that is really, at the end of the day, for you to hear yourself more clearly.
AB:
Yes. Just take ten minutes, be open to listening, and see what you have to say.
[Pause]
T.R.H. BLUE:
I Am Happy Today
If you are happy, be happy.
Pay no mind to the men dressed
in playclothes as prophets and gods,
whose necks bulge with their lectures on
greatness and the glory of ambition.
Do not let them rob you into thinking
you should want more than you want.
What do they know of greatness, of glory,
if they believe they speak for the divine
more clearly than cardinal, than swallow,
than doe leading her fawn to water,
than daylily and dandelion, here so briefly,
than dirt beneath your nails,
than your child
sat with glee upon your hip
the first they see Lake Michigan?
Hold on tight to your delight.
If you find it in this life,
you are one of the lucky.
If you find it, contentedness,
don’t fear to settle into it, to say
with pride and peace and power,
with plenty,
I am happy today.
[Pause]
ALEX BLUE:
(Singing: “The Point”)
I keep hearing people say,
"Gotta make this time count
Gotta make purpose out of clay
Gotta busy ourselves”
All of these lyrics and poetry
stuck in my mouth
Maybe the end of the world
is the time to get it all out
But what if I’m empty?
What if I’m tired?
What if I just wanna feel, wanna think,
without being inspired?
What if I’m useless?
What if I’m resigned?
What if the point at the end of the day
is staying alive?
There’s a jitter in my bones
A racing in my mind
What do I do with myself
to make me worth my time?
I am like windows and drywall,
a beautiful house,
But I wish I could build me a door
so that I could get out.
But what if I’m empty?
Oh, what if I’m tired?
What if I just wanna feel, wanna think,
without being inspired?
What if I’m useless?
Oh, what if I’m resigned?
What if the point at the end of the day is staying,
What if the point at the end of the day
is staying alive?
What if the point at the end of the day
is staying alive?
[Pause]
AB:
This has been The Daybird Sessions. Thanks so much for listening.
TB:
You can support me, t.r.h. blue, by signing up for my weekly newsletter, The Daylily, and purchasing prints of my poetry at www.notesontheway.com, and by sharing my work with your friends.
AB:
You can support me, Alex Blue, by listening to my music wherever you listen to music, and by joining me on Patreon at patreon.com/imalexbluenow.
TB:
Thanks, and see you next month!
I Am Happy Today | The Point