River Blues
Wednesday 23rd September 2009
I’m standing on a bridge across a river.
I’m in Maidstone, outside the court house, and the river is the Medway.
I’ve lived near this river all of my life. It’s as much a part of me as the sky, the hills around me, and the trees in the park next to my home. As I watch the water slowly slide by beneath my feet I sing to myself a song that I wrote when I was fifteen or sixteen. Back than the words just sounded good. I had no idea what love was and how it could hurt. I hadn’t had my first real girlfriend, let alone been married, had kids, shared my life, my heart, with another person. I was just a kid, I knew nothing. Yet the words come back to me now and I find that for the first time I understand them all.
“Medway river blues,
Flowing by like me and yous,
One moment here the next she’s gone,
Got no idea where I went wrong.
Medway river blues,
Flowing o’er my dusty shoes,
One moment here the next she goes,
Where she’s at nobody knows.
But if you see her crying in the night,
Tell her not to worry I’m all right,
‘Cos the future looks bright,
Yes the future looks bright on my own.
Alone, you’re on your own,
And you can’t keep the dreams from your mind.
Alone, you’re on your own,
But you don’t know what it is you have to find,
Deep in your mind,
In your mind.”
As this old relic from a long forgotten me drifts through my thoughts, I look up to the grey, overcast skies. I dream of a place where the sun always shines and the cool, blue waters flow.
I think it’s time to go back and start again. Time to do the things I should have done so long ago, while I’m still young.
It’s time to stop living with regrets and to just start living.
I can’t keep wondering “what if?” anymore.
I have to know.
Rivka Jacobs
Another heartfelt and emotional piece. I very much enjoyed this. I like your verses, a lot. Amazing — did you really write those when you were 16 years old? But I remember you were very mature and advanced as a writer when you were in your teens.
“It’s time to stop living with regrets and to just start living” is excellent advice for everyone … I need to remember that, too.
You have a way of reaching into your deepest emotions and translating your feelings into words or verse that communicate with a wide variety of people, perhaps in ways you didn’t initially intend. But as I say all the time, no matter what the stimulus of these deeply personal pieces, your stories resonate and continue to be meaningful.
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iansharman
Thanks! Yes, I did indeed write that song when I was about fifteen or sixteen. Rather amazed I can still remember the words!
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