The Marks on My Guitar

Recently I heard a new Melissa Etheridge song called Suede, and on first (or second or third) listen I thought, I like that song.

You can hear it here at this link, if you're interested.

I like many of her songs, and even play a few of them on my guitar (which isn't marked. At least not much.). I own most of her early albums but I haven't bought a new one in quite a while.

I downloaded a version with the lyrics off of a guitar music site, which has it in Em (not sure that's quite accurate, but it sort of works).

I listened to it again and played it through with the song. I like the melody, but I don't like the words. I'm not even sure what this song is about, to be honest. Falling into suede? What does that mean? Going back to the 1960s? Is that when suede was popular?

The only words I like are these: the marks on my guitar.

And that's not enough to make a good song. It does pique my interest in writing a poem about MY guitar, though. Or maybe instead I could write about music, and what it means to me. How I like to feel the strings beneath my fingers, the quiver of the string, play with the sounds. How I like to sing when I'm angry, or sad, or happy.

I haven't written said poem but I am thinking on it. I would like it to be a form poem - I like to try those - something like a villanelle or a sonnet or even a sestina, although I'm not sure about that as sestinas are rather long (they have 39 lines). I've only written one sestina in my lifetime and it was about roses, so I suppose one could get 39 lines out of music.

Or maybe I would simply write free verse, a love letter to the sounds that have been mine since I was 11 years old and first started learning to play.

It could be that this is all I write, this little blog post, which talks about five words in a song that I thought I liked but upon reflection I find I do not. It's not a bad song but other than those few words I don't find myself feeling much about it.

At any rate, I think I shall go make a little music. It's been a long morning.