i wandered in the wilderness of a childhood

until one day

high on a mountain in the older  world

the sweet spirit of music possessed me

and then but slowly

revealing only several of her many aspects

i admit i do not understand music

it is impossible

akin to understanding beauty

or understanding love

there is simply an eternal secret within it

one true magic of this world

the thing nobody will ever figure out completely

music sayeth unto me : subtlety ambiguity strangeness exaltation

maybe this is too big a job for you man it could take a lifetime

no no i say

i know it will take a long time

maybe more lifetimes than any old one

i trust nothing and no one only music

i love nothing and no one only music

i believe in nothing or no one only music

if you cut me i will bleed songs

and in the songs you will find your own blood

the spirit of music is swift is fleet is gone like that

oh  but i have loved her so unerringly obsessively

i know she will not desert me ever

nor none of us who love music but not as much as they need it

why this world of men must have its music

we generously share this with you and each other

sweet spirit of music said i have a place for you

from this day forth you will think of me constantly

and i will appear in thoughts and dreams and reveries

and i will come in disguises and in signs

now come into my arms and choose all the songs that you need

but how do i do that ? i wondered out loud

for there was no one else there

save a ram who had caught his horns in a thicket

but soon the faintest power surged within me

that will have to do i supposed

i walk the path i have no friends to speak of

i disdain anything unarcane

everything else has become inaccessible

i have no common sense at all

music has made me a fool

i have paid everything but i do not care

i am here in my impossible world

not single one person may come in only music

one day i woke up and my sweet spirit said

the love that men bear for me will keep them so turned on

and lo!

naked songs appeared in the whirling fast air

take as many as you can bear

remember to share

music whispered words in my mind were like hieroglyphs

we conferred somewhere between head and heart

if thou can love me only half as much as thy father

i will lay something on you sometimes something quite special

confirm your ardent intentions now promise me everything

i give little to those who cannot promise me everything

yet what is total devotion compared to everlasting song….?

and what is musics dominion only mind and soul and body…..?

so please let me strip the veil from your eye

maybe you can see the glorious infinities of my variations

maybe you can see how its all done

maybe you can see simplicity so obvious that it has become hidden

maybe you can see a way of healing some deep unknown hurt

maybe you can fall off the path maybe you can return

maybe music is the only important thing to a strange soul like you

we talked for a while on that desolate peak

there are no guarantees

no laws no rules no boundaries no exclusion

yet any man may invoke me if he but has faith in his heart

but so few of them do and it must be that way

destiny wants it though  i cannot say why

some may never unearth the music buried inside them

others wither their gift with their scorn

music really is the easiest thing

the easiest thing that ever existed anywhere anytime anyplace at all

the bass guitar is a very easy thing

for easily difficult souls like thee

use intuition and rely on your feelings

it is warm and soothing and humble and strong

play it with love ; it will unfold of itself

your fingers will act as interpreters for you

after the awkward strangeness has gone

a natural space will open  inside

knowledge and invention if they suddenly appear

where once your mind was empty and stuffy

no one can say what course you must follow

you’ll just have to suss it day after day

day after day after day after day

the voice hung in the air for a while like a plangent chorus

already my heart was aching for something

the something special the thing that i wanted

the day was deepening

in lebanon some beast howled in some mountain

a shudder ran through the darkened air

it was the possibility of a world without music