SAN DIEGO–How we shape life and how life shapes us is the theme of the lyrics this week from the collection of Hal Wingard. To see and hear songs previously published from his collection, please click here. (These songs will be added to the collection, once our main server is restored).
#101 — The Shots of Life
#310 — Beneath the Baubab Tree
#320 — Time to Blame
#310, The Shots of Life
When I was young and orchid bright,
Not yet knowing wrong from right,
I held the youthful point of view:
Nothing I couldn’t do!
Thus, when my bank account was low,
I’d double work to make it grow;
And when I felt my love-life thwarted,
I’d play the Don Juan as I courted.
I’d play the Don Juan as. . .I. . .courted.
Now youth is gone; and at my age
Orchids look like desert sage;
And I’ve revised my point of view:
Many things I cannot do.
I cannot change my changing health
As aging stalks in silent stealth;
And no way now nor in my prime
That I could stop the flow of time.
That I could stop the flow. . .of. . .time.
When I was young and starry-eyed,
I felt that if I really tried,
If I really gave my all,
The shots of life were mine to call.
My starry eyes have lost their glow,
And I have learned what all should know:
The shots of life fall where they fall,
And I don’t call the shots at all.
I don’t call the shots. . .at. . .all.
(c) Estate of Hal Wingard, July 10, 1980
#310, Beneath the Baubab Tree
A Story from Senegal
(Sung)
Beneath an ancient baubab tree
There sat an elder sage,
Sharing, should a person ask,
The wisdom learned with age.
(Spoken)
One day a youthful passerby
On route from Dokomo
Paused to ask for sage advice,
With facts the sage would know.
(Spoken)
“I’m on my way to Kadama,
You know, the nearby town.
Do all the people living there
Smile, or do they frown?”
(Spoken)
The sage then asked the passerby
To think for just a while.
“Do folks you left in Dokomo
Frown, or do they smile?”
(Sung)
“They frown,” the passerby replied.
“They frown the whole day through.”
“In Kadama,” the sage explained,
“You’ll find them frowning, too!”
(Spoken)
Another day, another youth
On route from Dokomo
Paused to ask for sage advice,
With facts the sage would know.
(Spoken)
“I’m on my way to Kadama,
You know, the nearby town.
Do all the people living there
Smile, or do they frown?”
(Spoken)
The sage then asked the passerby
To think for just a while.
“Do folks you left in Dokomo
Frown, or do they smile?”
(Sung)
“They smile,” the passerby replied.
“They smile the whole day through.”
“In Kadama,” the sage explained,
“You’ll find them smiling, too!”
(Sung)
Beneath an ancient baubab tree
There sat an elder sage,
Sharing, should a person ask,
The wisdom learned with age.
(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; To Lorraine D’Ambruoso, who served as leader of a strand entitled Connaître L’Afrique Francophone! at the 1997 Annual Summer Seminar for Language Teachers, where I heard Daouda Camera, who was born in Senegal, tell the story in French. February 11, 2003 The words, written August 8, 1997, during a wait-over at Los Angeles airport on the way home the day the Seminar ended, are a loose rendition of the original story.
#320, Time to Blame
We all know folks who voice complaint
That time makes life a race,
That time’s so fast they can’t keep up
To do the tasks they face.
The culprit, though, cannot be time.
It’s neither fast nor slow,
But rather moves, as rivers do,
In steady, self-paced flow.
“Too little time to do so much.”
That’s what some others claim.
And yet the ration ev’ry day
For ev’ryone’s the same.
Yes, time exists for us to use
In work and pleasure, too.
But time, for sure, has never caused
What we have failed to do.
The question’s not amount of time
Nor passage fast or slow,
But do we sometimes squander time—
And who can answer “no”?
(c) Estate of Hal Wingard, January 26, 2006. Words completed January 17, 1997, in Rancho Cordova