In My Days
I want my life to feel like an Iron & Wine song. Existing somewhere in between the realm of dreams and the real world.
Where flowers sing into the ears of shepherd’s dogs and beasts offer their love gently with their arms wrapped around the sun during a forgettable sunset that they alone choose to remember. Where love becomes visible to the human eye but escapes us when we attempt to capture it in words. Where love becomes a she. A her. A hers. Her scent paralysing our ghosts still clinging to our living bodies intertwined in the singers’ endless song.
A song and a life lived a thousand different ways. Sam’s mellow voice telling the story of every day as its own complete novel. Kept on bookshelves next to the winter prayers from four winters ago. The morning bearing new characters, moons and stones somewhere over the mountains in the distance where a young Ms at the bottom of the hill tells tales of a man that promised her everything she wanted and left her with two communion cups, someone’s coat and an old cloud picked from the sky.
A few good memories plucked from the acoustic strings of an old tree by the river in mother’s backyard. Tender talks about old bruises and scrapes on my knees from those long walks I took. Where I ran, fell and stumbled, landing myself far from home. Where I find reflections of my father in the bathroom mirror, picking me up with a toothbrush still in his mouth as my feet get lost in his shoes. Running along the road with the green passing of time. Spring cycles, summer weddings and autumn babies. Suckling on the teet of a freckled girl bridled by time as a stranger lay beside me.
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A dedication to Sam Beam:
For me, this is a very personal poem written and inspired by a musician I respect very greatly for his style of storytelling through music. Samuel Ervin Beam of Iron & Wine. It’s so amazing to me that he has been making music and releasing projects for 18 years now and has constantly found new stories to tell. A great deal of my own writing style has been influenced by his own abstract and poetic lyrics. Helping me find new stories in seemingly old spaces.
For every album cover in the gallery below, there is a reference within the poem. I’ve taken bits and pieces of his music, it’s influence on me and my style and placed all that into my own poem to place him right next to me where I am in my journey. At many different stages and through many struggles, Sam Beam’s music has given me peace and continues to shape how my eyes see the world as an artist. This little poem that I love so much is just one big thank you to Sam Beam and Iron & Wine. I would love for my work to reach him some day, but for now, sharing this poem is enough for me and I am most grateful to you for having read it.
